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RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL 
AND  HIS  WORK 


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aat^otlitti  Cbition 

RUSSELL  H.   CONWELL 
AND  HIS  WORK 

ONE  MAN'S  INTERPRETATION  OF  LIFE 


By 
AGNES  RUSH  BURR 


WITH    DOCTOR    CONWELL's    FAMOUS    LECTURE 

ACRES  OF   DIAMONDS 


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,     ;  -PHIL'AT:! XPHiA    ' 
THE  JOHN  C.  WINSTON  COMPANY 

FUoLISHERG 


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Copyright,  1917,  by 
The  John  C.  Winston  Co. 


The  Baptist  Temple 

PHILJIDBLPSIA,   PA. 


November  27,  1916. 
Gentlemen: 

In  the  preparation  of  this  biography 
Miss  Burr  has  had  the  advantage  of  intimate 
acquaintance  with  me  and  my  work  for  many 
years.  I  have  given  her  full  access  to  every 
kind  of  information  that  I  possess,  and 
have  talked  with  her  freely  as  to  the  aims 
and  purposes  I  had  in  view.  I  have  repeated 
to  her  conversations  which  I  have  had  with 
representative  men  whom  I  have  met  in  my 
travels  both  in  this  country  and  in  Europe. 

The  estimate  which  Miss  Burr  has  placed 
upon  me  and  my  work  is  of  course  entirely 
her  own.   She  has  written  with  the  eyes  and 
heart  of  a  friend,  and  that  must  color  more 
or  less  the  account  in  my  favor. 

While  of  course  I  cannot  accept  respon- 
sibility for  the  opinions  of  the  author,  I 
believe  that  her  narrative  of  the  facts  of 
my  life  is  correct  and  it  goes  forth  with  my 
entire  approval. 

Fraternally  yours. 

To  The  John  C.  Winston  Company 
Philadelphia 


FOREWORD 

THE  biggest  problem  that  confronts  a  man  is 
life.  It  includes  all  problems.  To  find  a  sat- 
isfactory solution  is  every  man's  earnest  desire 
and  persistent  quest. 

How  others  have  solved  the  problem  is  often  enlight- 
ening. Particularly  do  the  records  of  those  whose  lives 
have  been  greatly  useful  to  the  world  have  much  in 
them  of  help,  especially  when  they  began  life  with  none 
of  the  aids  considered  necessary  to  achievement,  yet 
have  achieved. 

Such  is  the  career  of  Russell  H.  Conwell.  He  started 
life  as  a  penniless  boy  on  a  rocky  New  England  farm. 
He  had  neither  money  nor  influence  to  help  toward 
success.  Yet  he  has  achieved  success  in  great 
measure — a  success  that  ranks  higher  than  the  gain- 
ing of  wealth  or  fame,  though  these  have  been  won — 
in  that  its  finest  flower  is  great  service  to  his  fellow- 
men. 

The  road  he  hewed  for  himself  may  prove  both  inter- 
esting and  helpful  to  trace.  This  record  of  it  is  offered 
with  the  hope  that  the  sign-posts  along  the  way  may 
be  of  use  to  others  in  faring  toward  their  goal. 


(9) 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  ^^^^ 

I.   The  Story  of  the  Sword. 

Doctor  Conwell's  Favorite  Occupation.  He  Tells 
the  Cause  of  His  Unceasing  Work 19 

II.   The  Man  as  He  is  Today. 

His  Life  Harvest.  His  Wide  Activities— His 
Many  Charities— His  Aims  in  Life 26 

III.  Doctor  Conwell's  Ancestry. 

The  Conwell  Family  Tree.  Doctor  Conwell  Tells 
His  Views  on  Ancestry 29 

IV.  The      Conwell     Home     Without     and 

Within 
Doctor  Conwell  Describes  the  Daily  Life  of  His 
Boyhood.     The  Mental  and  Spiritual  Atmosphere 
of  the  Home 32 

V.   The  Friends  that  Came  and  Went. 

Doctor  Conwell  Gives  Personal  Recollections  of 
John  Brown,  Frederick  Douglas,  WilUam  Cullen 
Bryant  and  Other  Distinguished  People  Who 
Influenced  Him  in  His  Boyhood 45 

VI.   Early  Years. 

Formative  Influences  of  Nature.  Traits  Developed 
by  the  Hard  Work  of  the  Farm.  The  Literature 
of  the  Home  and  Its  Influence  upon  His  Life ....     59 

VII.   The  Runaway. 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  of  His  First  Escapade.  Run- 
ning Away  a  Second  Time  and  Going  to  Europe .  .     67 

VIII.   School  Days. 

Doctor  Conwell  Describes  His  Early  School  Days. 
He  Shows  How  One  can  Get  a  Practical  and 
Useful  Education  Right  at  Home 75 

(11) 


12  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

IX.   The  Place  of  Music  in  Education. 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  the  Value  of  Music  in  a 
Child's  Education  and  How  He  was  Able  to 
Secure  It.  The  Benefit  It  has  Been  to  His  Life. 
He  Makes  Some  Suggestions  for  Musical  Programs    83 

X.  School  Days  at  Wilbraham. 

Earning  the  Money  to  Go.  Working  His  Way 
Through.  His  Studies.  Doctor  Conwell  Describes 
His  First  Public  Debate  There,  Its  Ignominious 
Failure  and- the  Value  of  Debating  Societies.  His 
Work  as  a  Book  Canvasser 90 

XL   College  Days  at  Yale. 

His  Struggle  to  Get  Through  College.  The 
Humiliation  of  those  Days.     A  Dip  into  Atheism  101 

XII.   The  Outbreak  of  the  War. 

A  Visit  to  New  York.  Doctor  Conwell  Gives  His 
First  Impressions  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and 
Lincoln.     Speeches  for  Enlistment 106 

XIII.  Going  to  War. 

Enlisting.  Raising  Troops.  His  Election  as 
Captain  and  Presentation  of  Sword.  Doctor 
Conwell's  Letter  Home  Describing  His  First 
Engagement 112 

XIV.  The  Second  Enlistment. 

Captain  of  Company  D.  Accompanied  by  John 
Ring.  In  Charge  of  Newport  Barracks.  Attack 
of  Pickett's  Corps.  Defeat  of  Conwell's  Men. 
Death  of  John  Ring,  Appointment  on  General 
McPherson's  Staff.  Wounded  at  Kenesaw  Moun- 
tain,    Conversion 125 

XV.   New  Ventures. 

Admitted  to  the  Bar.  Marriage.  Removal  West. 
Life  in  Minneapolis.  Mrs.  Conwell's  Progressive 
Editorial  as  to  Woman's  Place  and  Interests. 
Loss  of  Home  and  Illness.  Immigration  Agent 
to  Germany.  Given  up  to  Die  in  Paris.  Health 
Restored.  Reporter  on  Boston  Traveller.  Trip 
Around  World  as  Correspondent 135 


CONTENTS  13 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVI.  Busy  Days  in  Boston. 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  about  Meeting  Tennyson, 
Gladstone,  Garibaldi,  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
Whittier,  and  Many  Other  Famous  People.  His 
Work  as  a  Lawyer.  Free  Legal  Advice  to  the 
Poor.  The  Boston  Young  Men's  Congress.  His 
Tremont  Temple  Sunday-school  Class 151 


XVII.   His  Entry  into  the  Ministry. 

The  Death  of  Mrs.  Conwell.  Increasing  Interest 
in  Religious  Work.  Doctor  Conwell's  Second 
Marriage.  The  Lexington  Church.  His  Decision 
to  Enter  the  Ministry 166 


XVIII.   His  First  Pastorate. 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  Why  He  did  not  Earlier 
Enter  the  Ministry.  His  Advice  upon  Choosing  a 
Life- Work.  The  Condition  of  the  Church  at 
Lexington.  The  First  Service.  Building  a  New 
Church.  His  First  Church  Fair.  The  Activities 
and  Growth  of  the  Lexington  Church.  His  Help 
in  Developing  Lexington.  His  Ordination.  The 
CaU  to  Philadelphia 170 


XIX.  The  Early  Days  of  the    Philadelphia 

Pastorate. 

The  Beginning  of  Grace  Baptist  Church.  A 
Letter  Describing  a  Church  Service.  John  Wana- 
maker's  Tribute  to  Doctor  Conwell's  "  Different " 
Methods.     The  Growth  of  the  Church 185 


XX.   A  Child's  Legacy. 

The  Beginning  of  the  Building  Fund  of  The  Baptist 
Temple 197 


XXI.  Building  The  Temple. 

How  a  Poor  Congregation  Built  One  of  the  Finest 
Church  Edifices  in  the  Country.  Doctor  Conwell's 
Ideas  as  to  What  a  Church  Edifice  Should  be  Like. 
His  Own  Plans  for  The  Temple.  His  Warnings 
Against  the  Perils  of  Success 199 


14  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  P-A^OE 

XXII.  How  The  Temple  Works. 

Doctor  Conwell  Discusses  the  Church  Work  and 
Tells  the  Underlying  Principles  which  He  Beheves 
should  Govern.  The  Various  Organizations.  The 
Temple  Fairs  and  their  Purpose.  Doctor  Conwell 
Gives  His  Ideas  of  a  Church  Fair:  The  Various 
Entertainments.  How  they  are  Planned  and 
Managed 209 

XXIII.  The  Business  Management. 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  how  the  Business  Affairs  of 
The  Temple  are  Conducted.  The  System  of 
Handling  the  Church  Finances 227 

XXIV.  The  Music  of  The  Temple. 

The  Chorus  of  The  Temple  and  Its  Organization 
and  First  Leader,  Professor  David  D.  Wood. 
Professor  Wood's  Views  on  Choir  Organization 
and  Work  The  Business  Management  of  The 
Temple  Chorus.     The  Special  Organ 233 

XXV.   Temple  Services. 

The  Sunday  Routine.  The  Children's  Chuich. 
The  Sunday-school  and  Sunday  Prayer-Meetings. 
Baptismal  Services.  The  Dedication  of  Infants. 
Special  Services.     Watch  Meeting 243 

XX VI.   Temple  Prayer-Meetings. 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  the  Purpose  a  Prayer- 
Meeting  Serves.  The  Various  Prayer-Meetings 
of  The  Temple.   The  Method  of  Conducting  Them  255 

XXVII.   How    Temple    University    Transforms 
Life. 
The   Reason    Instruction   at   Temple   University 
Means  More  than  in  Many  Institutions.     Doctor 
Conwell  Tells  How  it  Came  to  Be.     Rev.  Forest 
Dager  Shows  the  Need  of  It 261 

XXVIII.   A  University  for  the  People. 

Obtaining  the  Charter.  Laying  the  Corner-Stone. 
The  Ultimate  Development  that  is  Hoped  will 
Come 274 


CONTENTS 


15 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXIX.  A  Democratic  Institution. 

What  the  Opportunities  it  Offers  Mean.  Its 
Adaptable  Curriculum.  Its  Willingness  to  Meet 
Needs.  The  Various  Departments.  Many  Unique 
Special  Courses.     Its  Small  Tuition  Fees 282 

XXX.   Helping  the  Sick  Poor. 

The  Samaritan  and  Garretson  Hospitals.  Doctor 
Con  well  Tells  How  the  Samaritan  Hospital 
Started.  He  Gives  His  Ideas  of  True  Charity. 
The  Unique  Beginning  of  Garretson  Hospital. 
The  Work  it  Does  at  Present 294 

XXXI.   Spreading  Visions. 

How  the  Lecture  "Acres  of  Diamonds"  has 
Brought  Fuller  Life  to  Many.  How  it  Helped  a 
Salesman.  How  it  has  Built  up  Towns.  Its 
Voice  Within  Prison  Walls.  The  Message  it 
has  for  All 302 


XXXII.   The  History  of  ''Acres  of  Diamonds." 

The  First  Time  "Acres  of  Diamonds"  was 
Dehvered.  Its  Present  Great  Popularity.  What 
it  has  Earned.  The  Number  of  Students  Helped. 
Doctor  Conwell  Tells  How  He  Came  to  Give  the 
Proceeds  of  the  Lecture  to  Poor  Students.  Inci- 
dents of  Lecture  Trips 313 

XXXIIL   Ten  Million  Hearers. 

Unique  Lecturing  Places.  Lecture  Topics.  Doc- 
tor Conwell  Discusses  Audiences.  Tells  How  to 
Keep  the  Voice  in  Good  Condition.  Mentions 
the  Best  Ways  to  Study  for  Public  Speaking  and 
Speaks  of  His  Early  Efforts.  What  Others  Say 
of  His  Lectures.  His  Chautauqua  Work  and 
what  He  Thinks  of  the  Chautauqua  Movement.  324 

XXXIV.   Fifty  Years  on  the  American  Platform. 

Doctor  Conwell  Discusses  Lecturing  as  a  Career 
and  Gives  Reminiscences  from  His  Many  Years' 
Experience 337 

XXXV.   Doctor  Conwell  as  a  Writer. 

His  Biographical  Work.  Lives  of  the  Presidents. 
How  He  Wrote  His  Successful  Life  of  Spurgeon. 
Books  that  Have  Helped  Him.  His  Favorite 
Authors  and  Characters 346 


16  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XXXVI.   Marginalia. 

A  Favorite  Motto.  Home  Life.  Family  Bereave- 
ment.    Public  Honors 353 

XXXVII.   The  Message  of  a  Life. 

The  Secret  of  Doctor  Conwell's  Success.  He 
Emphasizes  the  Power  of  Right  Thinking  and 
Tells  How  to  Use  It  InteUigently.  The  Develop- 
ment of  Personality — a  Process  of  Education.  Doc- 
tor Conwell's  Search  for  Knowledge  and  How  He 
Found  It.  What  True  Living  is.  In  Tune  with 
the  Infinite.  Doctor  Conwell's  Life — a  Mighty 
Inspiration  to  Everybody 358 

APPENDIX. 

Doctor   Conwell's   View   of   a   Menace   to    Our 
Democracy 365 

''The  Battlefields  of  the  Rebellion" 378 

Whittier's  Poem  "Memories" 390 

Outline  of  Early  Sermons 393 

Service  Used  in  the  Dedication  of  Infants 401 

"Acres  of  Diamonds" 405 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Russell  H.  Conwell,  D.D Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Martin  Conwell 29 

The  Birthplace  of  Russell  H.  Conwell 32 

Miranda  Conwell 40 

Russell  H.  Conwell  at  the  Age  of  Twelve 66 

The  Old  Door-step,  Wilbraham  Academy 95 

The  Campus,  Wilbraham  Academy 95 

Russell  H.  Conwell  when  Elected  Captain 112 

Lieutenant-Colonel  Conwell 132 

Mrs.  Jennie  Conwell 138 

Russell  H.  Conwell  when  He  Entered  the  Ministry  172 
The    First    ''Church    Home"    of    Grace    Baptist 

Church 186 

The  Baptist  Temple 203 

Professor  David  D.  Wood 234 

Temple  University 278 

The  Samaritan  Hospital 296 

Mrs.  Sarah  F.  Conwell 355 


(17) 


CHAPTER  I 

The  Story  of  the  Sword 

Doctor  ConwelVs  Favorite   Occupation.      He   Tells 
the  Cause  of  His  Unceasing  Work. 

RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  was  once  asked,  '^What 
is  your  favorite  occupation?" 
L      ''Living,"   was  the    prompt    and  hearty  re- 
joinder. 

His  career  proves  his  words. 

No  one  can  meet  him;  feel  his  hearty  handclasp; 
hear  his  deep,  vibrant  voice,  or  see  his  cordial  smile, 
without  knowing  he  enjoys  living. 

No  one  can  come  in  touch  with  his  work — the  big 
church,  with  its  membership  of  more  than  three  thousand ; 
the  great  university  for  busy  people,  with  a  roll  call  in 
its  twenty-seven  years  of  ninety  thousand  students; 
the  two  hospitals,  with  their  thousands  of  patients 
annually;  his  lecture  trips  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  in  the  course  of  which  he  speaks  to  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  people — without  realizing  that  he  gives 
to  this  occupation  of  living  all  of  his  time  and  energy. 
He  throws  himself  wholly  into  it. 

But,  though  his  pleasure  in  living  and  working  is 
keen,  he  has  still  another  and  greater  incentive  for  his 
wealth  of  achievement. 

Over  Doctor  Conwell's  bed,  in  his  Philadelphia  home, 
hangs  a  sword.  Back  of  this  sword  is  a  story.  It  is 
the  tragedy  of  this  story  that  is  the  chief  cause  of  the 
unceasing  activity  which  fills  his  days.  He  is  a  man 
who  would  undoubtedly  have  accomplished  much  with 

(19) 


20       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

his  life.  But  this  disaster  made  it  imperative  that  he 
do  so. 

He  is  induced  sometimes  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
sword.  He  related  it  once  to  a  little  group  of  friends 
in  his  home.  As  they  were  admiring  its  beautiful, 
gold-chased  scabbard,  his  face  saddened.  He  was 
silent  for  a  moment.  Then,  in  the  simple,  direct  and 
unaffected  way  characteristic  of  him,  he  told  what 
this  sword  meant  to  his  life. 

''During  the  Civil  War,"  he  said,  ''when  I  re- 
enlisted  at  Readville,  Massachusetts,  a  boy  came  to 
me  who  wanted  to  go  to  the  war  with  me.  His  father 
had  consented.     His  mother  was  dead. 

"I  said  to  him,  'John,  you  should  not  go  to  war. 
You  will  be  killed.'  I  tried  to  frighten  him,  but  he 
was  determined  to  go.  I  told  him  then  that  he  could 
not  go.  But  his  father  insisted,  and  I  finally  permitted 
him  to  go  with  me. 

"I  went  to  war  from  Yale  College.  I  had  been 
there  a  little  over  a  year  and  naturally  knew  every- 
thing that  anybody  could  possibly  know.  I  remem- 
ber coming  home  the  previous  vacation  and  while 
digging  potatoes  my  devout  Methodist  father  said 
to  me,  'My  son,  I  notice  that  you  do  not  go  to  church.' 
I  said,  '  No,  father.  And  I  am  not  going  to  church  any 
more.  I  don't  believe  the  Bible  anyhow.'  'My  son,' 
he  continued,  '  are  you  getting  away  from  your  father's 
God;  from  your  mother's  God?'  'No,  father,'  I 
replied,  'you  ought  to  consider  that  I  have  been  to 
college  and  know  all  these  things.  You  have  never 
been  to  college  and  3^ou  are  not  expected  to  know. 
I  am  an  agnostic.  I  have  learned  that  I  don't  know 
anything  about  religion.' 

"My  father  was  broken-hearted.  He  said  to  me, 
'Don't  go  to  school  any  more.     I  would  rather  you 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SWORD  21 

would  hold  on  to  the  love  of  God  than  go  to  school 
and  learn  everything.  My  son,  I  would  rather  see 
your  body  going  into  the  grave  than  to  hear  that  you 
had  joined  the  atheists  and  infidels/ 

"I  said,  *I  will  have  to  tell  you  the  truth.  I  have 
joined  the  free-thinkers^  club.' 

"My  classmates'  autograph  books  still  bear  the 
record  with  my  name  as  'Atheist.'  I  was  known  as 
a  disbeliever  in  the  Bible  and  I  used  everything  I 
could  find  to  prove  that  it  was  untrue. 

"But  the  first  night  that  John  Ring  came  into  my 
tent,  he  took  out  his  Bible  and  read  it  by  the  candle- 
light. I  said,  'John,  you  can't  do  that  in  my  tent. 
I  don't  believe  in  it  and  everyone  will  laugh  at  me  if 
I  permit  you  to  do  that.'  The  next  night  I  found  him 
reading  it  again  and  I  said  to  the  boy,  'You  can't  read 
that  Bible  in  my  tent!'  ^Why,'  he  said,  'what  is  the 
matter.  Captain?  This  is  my  mother's  Bible  and 
father  told  me  to  read  it  in  memory  of  mother.'  I 
said,  'You  ought  to  remember  your  mother,  but  you 
can't  read  that  book  in  this  tent.'  He  answered  with 
tears,  'I  love  you.  Captain,  but  you  are  a  very  wicked 
man.'  After  that  night  John  went  into  my  orderly- 
sergeant's  tent  to  read  his  Bible. 

"One  day,  when  I  was  called  away  on  duty,  there 
came  an  attack  upon  our  fort  in  North  Carolina,  below 
Newbern,  at  the  Newport  River.  Pickett's  celebrated 
corps  drove  our  men  from  the  camp.  My  troops  fled 
across  the  river  and  set  the  long  trestle  bridge  on  fire. 
When  some  had  gotten  across,  John  ran  up  to  the 
orderly-sergeant  there  and  said,  'Where  is  the  Cap- 
tain's sword?'  He  answered,  'He  has  it  on.  Get 
out  of  the  way.'  But  John  meant  this  gold-sheathed 
sword  that  was  presented  to  me  at  Springfield,  Massa- 
chusetts, when  I  first  went  to  war.     It  always  hung 


22       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

on  the  center-pole  of  my  tent,  and  it  was  John's  especial 
dehght  to  polish  it  and  keep  it  bright.  Fearful  now 
that  it  had  been  left  behind,  he  ran  back  across  the 
bridge,  in  among  the  Confederate  soldiers,  into  my 
tent  and  pulled  down  this  gold-sheathed  sword  that 
I  had  promised,  when  it  was  presented  to  me,  to  give 
my  life  to  preserve. 

^'He  managed  to  get  about  half-way  back  across  the 
burning  bridge  when  a  Confederate  captain  saw  him 
and  did  one  of  the  noblest  deeds  of  the  war.  He  came 
out  in  full  view  and  swung  his  white  handkerchief. 
The  fire  on  both  sides  ceased  and  the  Confederate  cap- 
tain shouted,  ^Tell  the  boy  to  jump  into  the  river! 
Jump  on  either  side.     We  will  save  him!' 

^'They  shouted,  but  they  could  not  make  him  hear. 
When  he  came  near  our  end  of  the  bridge  his  clothes 
were  blazing  high.  He  ran  through  the  smoke  and 
flung  himself  out  on  the  end  of  the  abutment  of  the 
bridge,  and  my  sword  fell  from  his  hands  to  the  bank 
of  the  river.  They  rolled  him  into  the  water  and  washed 
out  the  fire,  but  he  was  insensible. 

''They  put  him  on  a  gun  carriage  and  took  him  down 
to  the  hospital  at  Beaufort.  There  he  lay  for  three 
days.  With  the  return  of  consciousness,  one  night,  he 
asked  the  nurse,  'WHiere  am  I?  Where  is  the  Cap- 
tain's sword?  Won't  you  bring  it  in,  so  I  can  put 
my  hand  on  it?  Is  the  Captain  coming  to  see  me?' 
The  nurse  told  him  that  I  was  coming  to  see  him  soon. 
The  next  night  he  awoke  and  said,  'Hasn't  the  Captain 
come  yet?  I  want  to  give  him  the  sword  myself,  for 
then  he  will  know  how  much  I  love  him.' 

"A  little  later  the  surgeon  came  along  and  said, 
'That  boy  isn't  going  to  live.'  He  called  the  nurse 
and  asked,  'Are  you  a  Christian  woman?' 

"  'Yes.' 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SWORD  23 

"  'Then  tell  the  boy  he  is  going  to  die,  for  he  won't 
live  till  morning.' 

*^The  nurse  sat  down  beside  him;  took  his  hand  and 
said,  'John,  you  are  going  to  see  your  mother.' 

"'What?' 

"  'You  are  going  to  see  your  mother,'  she  repeated. 

"  'Do  you  think  I  am  going  to  die?'  he  questioned. 

"  'Yes,'  said  the  nurse.  'I  will  have  to  tell  you 
the  truth.  You  will  probably  not  live  more  than 
twenty-four  hours.  Do  you  want  some  one  to  pray 
with  you?' 

''He  didn't  answer  her  question  but  put  up  his  hands 
and  began  to  move  his  lips  in  prayer.  She  sent  for 
the  chaplain  but  did  not  find  him..  A  short  time 
afterward  John  took  hold  of  the  sword  and  whispered, 
'Will  you  tell  the  Captain  that  I  saved  his  sword?' 

"She  answered,  'Yes,  I  will  tell  him;  but  I  hope 
he  will  be  able  to  get  here  before  you  go.' 

"He  turned  his  face  upward;  peace  came  to  his 
features  and  my  John  went  into  the  Shining.  When 
they  sent  me  word  that  he  was  dead,  no  man  can 
describe  the  horror  that  came  into  my  soul. 

"Six  months  afterward  I  was  left  for  dead  on  the 
field  of  battle  at  Kenesaw  Mountain,  in  Georgia. 
I  came  to  myself  in  the  hospital  tent  and  asked  my 
nurse  if  I  was  living. 

"She  said,  'Do  you  want  something  to  eat?' 

"  'No,'  I  said,  'I  want  the  chaplain.' 

"She  sent  for  him;  he  came  and  sat  beside  me  and 
said,  'What  do  you  wish?' 

"  'I  want  to  be  forgiven,'  I  replied;  'I  want  to  find 
my  Lord.     I  feel  that  I  must.     Will  you  pray  for  me? ' 

"He  made  one  of  those  formal  praj^ers  that  we  hear 
sometimes.  It  didn't  do  me  any  good  and  I  was 
angry.  I  said,  'I  want  to  be  prayed  out  of  my  sins 
somehow  or  other.' 


24       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

^'He  got  cross  and  went  out,  but  soon  he  came  back 
and  said,  'I  am  sorry  that  I  was  impatient.' 

^'I  told  him  that  I  wanted  him  to  read  the  Bible  to 
me;  that  I  had  disbelieved  in  it  and  now  I  wanted  to 
believe  in  it.  I  told  him  about  John  Ring  and  how  he 
had  once  read  the  fourteenth  chapter  of  John.  He 
read  it,  and  then  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Romans,  but 
I  couldn't  see  anything  then.  I  felt  there  was  no 
help  for  me  in  the  Bible.  I  told  him  so  and  he  said, 
'The  only  thing  for  you  to  do,  Colonel,  is  to  go  to 
God  yourself.' 

''I  said,  'It  looks  as  though  I  must.  I  don't  see 
that  I  am  getting  any  help  from  you;  but  come  in 
again.' 

''Sometime  during  the  night  I  felt  a  strange  sense 
of  dying — a  fading,  falling  out  of  life — and  I  said,  'I 
am  going  to  my  God  if  there  is  one;  to  the  Saviour 
whom  I  have  scoffed  at  and  despised;  going  to  meet 
John  and  his  God.'  An  awful  sense  of  sinking  came 
over  me  and  I  called  upon  the  unknown  God  for  for- 
giveness, and  asked  Him  to  reveal  Himself  to  me  if 
there  was  any  revelation  possible.  A  little  later  I 
asked  the  nurse  to  read  a  prayer.  A  few  minutes 
after  that  my  heart  was  opened.  I  cannot  describe 
it — no  one  can — that  instinctive  need  for  the  love  of 
God,  and  that  warming  of  the  heart  which  came  to 
me.  But  the  sense  of  final  forgiveness  seemed  to  fill 
my  soul  with  light. 

"John  Ring's  life  and  his  adherence  to  what  he 
believed  to  be  right  had  its  influence  in  leading  me  to 
God.  His  death  made  me  feel  a  solemn  obligation  to 
repay  the  world  for  his  loss.  I  keep  hanging  on  the 
wall,  over  the  head  of  my  bed,  the  sword  that  John 
saved.  Every  morning,  before  I  kneel  to  pray,  I  say, 
^Lord,  if  Thou  wilt  help  me  today,  I  will  do  John 


THE  STORY  OF  THE  SWORD  25 

Ring's  work  and  my  work.'  I  have  been  trying  to 
do  two  men's  work — John's  and  my  own — in  order 
that  when  I  go  home  to  heaven  I  may  say,  ^John. 
your  Hfe  went  out  early  but  I  did  the  best  that  I  could 
to  make  up  for  it.'  If  there  is  any  special  reason  for 
the  amount  of  work  that  I  have  done,  it  is  this:  I 
want  to  be  able  to  say  honestly  each  night,  ^I  have 
done  your  work  today,  John,  as  well  as  my  own.'  " 


CHAPTER  II 

The  Man  as  He  is  Today 

His    Life    Harvest,     His    Wide    Activities.     His 
Many  Charities,     His  Aims  in  Life. 

THE  milestones  of  the  years  are  many  since  the 
tragic  death  of  John  Ring  and  the  vow  taken 
then  by  the  boy  of  nineteen  to  do  two  men's 
work. 
How  has  the  vow  been  kept?  What  is  the  fruitage 
of  these  years?  Russell  Conwell  has  today  passed 
the  threescore-and-ten  mark.  One  might  be  justified 
in  saying  that  his  life-work  has  come  to  its  harvest. 
What,  then,  is  this  harvest?  What  does  Russell  Con- 
well  represent  in  the  eyes  of  his  fellowmen,  and  what 
is  he,  now  that  he  has  come  to  those  years  when  one 
is  supposed  to  rest  from  his  labors? 

Though  far  past  seventy,  Russell  Conwell  is  still 
a  driving  force — a  resistless  energy.  He  impresses  at 
once  with  a  sense  of  power  and  vitality.  He  is  tall, 
broad-shouldered  and  deep-chested.  His  features  are 
rugged  and  strong;  his  glance,  penetrating  but  kindly. 
He  is  keen  to  see  and  quick  to  do.  His  vision  is 
still  toward  the  future.  When  a  work  to  which  he  has 
put  his  hand  is  accomplished,  he  does  not  stop.  He 
does  the  next  thing — and  he  does  it  at  once. 

Russell  Conwell  has  built  up  from  almost  nothing 
the  largest  Protestant  Church  in  America,  and  has 
baptized  there  more  than  six  thousand  adults. 
Through  the  University  which  he  has  founded,  life 
has  been  broadened  and  enriched  for  almost  a  hun- 

(26) . 


THE  MAN  AS  HE  IS  TODAY  27 

dred  thousand  men  and  women  who  otherwise  might 
not  have  had  the  opportunity  for  this  greater  measure 
of  living.  Through  the  two  hospitals  which  have 
grown  out  of  his  work,  health  and  healing  have  been 
brought  to  the  sick  poor.  His  lectures  have  given 
material  aid  to  thousands  of  poor  students,  and 
inspiration  that  has  meant  success  and  happiness  to 
literally  millions  of  hearers. 

Yet  these  accomplishments  do  not  satisfy  Russell 
Con  well.  They  are  but  landmarks  that  are  passed. 
They  were  things  to  be  done  and  he  did  them.  His 
gaze  is  now  forward  to  other  work  that  waits. 

Although  he  has  estabhshed  for  working  men  and 
women  a  university  that  annually  enrolls  four  thou- 
sand students,  he  now  foresees  the  possibilities  of  branch 
universities  in  every  ward  of  Philadelphia,  where  those 
who  earn  their  living  can,  when  working  hours  are 
over,  quickly  reach  classrooms  near  their  homes.  He 
is  pressing  toward  this  goal. 

Through  his  close  touch  with  educational  matters 
and  because  of  his  own  struggles  as  a  boy  to  secure 
an  education,  Russell  Conwell  recently  discerned  in 
certain  legislation  an  attempt  to  shut  the  poor  boy 
out  of  the  professions.  He  not  only  felt  the  injustice 
of  this,  but  he  saw  what  it  would  mean  to  the  American 
people  if  not  prevented.  He  immediately  raised  his 
voice  in  protest.  Wherever  he  spoke  he  gave  a  stir- 
ring warning  of  this  danger  to  democracy,  with  the 
result  that  newspapers  and  magazines  took  the  matter 
up  and  the  evil  is  likely  to  be  scotched  in  its  inception. 
(See  Appendix,  ''Peril  to  Democracy.") 

Russell  Conwell  stands  today  for  forwardness  per- 
haps more  than  for  anything  else;  for  not  resting 
content  with  what  he  has  done,  but  for  vigorously 
going  on  to  do  more. 


28       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Doctor  Conwell  stands  also  for  another  thing.  He 
is  a  penniless  millionaire.  He  is  a  rich  man  without 
a  bank  account.  He  has  Uttle  of  what  the  world  calls 
wealth.  This  is  not  because  of  inabiUty  to  earn.  He 
could  have  been  today  many  times  a  millionaire  had 
he  been  so  inclined.  Yet,  without  money,  he  repre- 
sents success — a  success  surely  as  great  as  that  to 
which  any  millionaire  can  point. 

Dr.  Newell  Dwight  HiUis,  pastor  of  Henry  Ward 
Beecher's  old  church  in  Brooklyn,  accounts  Doctor 
Conwell  among  the  world's  foremost  one  hundred  men. 
In  a  contest  in  a  national  magazine,  his  name  was 
selected  for  the  Hall  of  Fame,  and  the  people  of  Penn- 
sylvania voted  him  as  one  of  its  three  most  distinguished 
citizens.  Thus  stands  Doctor  Conwell  in  the  public 
eye.  Though  sincerely  appreciative  of  these  worldly 
honors  they  occupy  very  little  of  his  attention. 

Russell  Conwell  is  concerned  chiefly  with  the  work  he 
feels  he  must  do  as  long  as  he  lives.  His  one  desire 
is,  as  a  writer  has  expressed  it,  'Ho  put  his  ideals  over." 
His  sincere  query  to  himself  always  is,  ''Did  my  mes- 
sage drive  home?  Is  some  one  benefited  by  what 
I  have  said  or  done  today?"  And  this  is  not  said 
egotistically.  He  believes  that  every  one  is  in  this 
life  for  a  purpose;  that  it  is  his  duty  to  find  that 
purpose  and  fulfil  it.  One  might  say,  both  in  what 
Doctor  Conwell  has  achieved  in  the  past  and  in  what 
he  is  still  desirous  of  achieving,  that  he  represents  full 
living;  for  he  has  never  been  niggardly  of  life,  either 
through  a  desire  to  hoard  it  for  hunself,  or  through 
fear  of  draining  its  powers  too  soon. 


MARTIN    CONWELL 

Father  of  Russell  H.  Conwell 


CHAPTER  III 

Doctor  Conwell's  Ancestry 

The  Conwell  Family  Tree,     Doctor  Conwell  Tells 
His  Views  on  Ancestry. 

BY  birth  Russell  Conwell  is  a  New  Englander. 
His  father  was  Martin  Conwell,  a  Massachusetts 
farmer — a  tall,  vigorous  man,  ''always  in  a 
hurry,*'  says  Doctor  Conwell,  in  recollecting 
him.  Many  say  that  Doctor  Conwell  resembles  his 
father. 

His  mother  was  Miranda  Wickham.  She  came  of  a 
family  from  the  central  part  of  New  York  State.  She 
was  slender,  with  a  thin,  earnest  face  and  large  blue 
eyes,  was  quiet  and  loving;  a  great  reader;  a  devoted 
student  of  the  Bible,  and  a  tireless  worker.  ''She 
seems  to  have  been  an  inexhaustible  person,"  Doctor 
Conwell  says,  in  speaking  of  her,  "She  never  seemed 
to  get  tired.  I  remember  her  as  always  working, 
working,  working." 

Martin  ConwelFs  father  was  a  Southerner — Martin 
Conwell,  of  Baltimore.  The  injection  of  the  hot- 
blooded,  impulsive.  Southern  temperament  into  this 
New  England  family  is  said  by  many  who  knew  them 
to  have  left  its  traces  upon  them. 

The  members  of  this  family  were  demonstrative 
and  expressed  their  feelings — especially  their  affec- 
tions— with  less  reserve  than  the  usual  New  Englander. 
The  imaginative  faculty  was  strongly  developed,  and 
it  was  not  checked  or  restrained.  In  many  qualities 
of  the  heart  and  mind,   they  exhibited  the  warmth 

(29) 


30       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  impulsiveness  of  the  South  rather  than  the  cold 
restraint  of  the  North. 

Behind  Martin  Conwell  of  Baltimore  stretched  a 
long  line  of  ancestors  reaching,  so  far  as  records  and 
family  traditions  go,  to  the  days  of  William  the  Con- 
queror of  England.  They  were  men  who  did  things. 
One  of  them — John  Conwell — fought  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Anglo-Saxon  tongue  in  England  when  there 
was  danger  of  its  being  swept  away  by  the  Norman 
French.  The  fact  that  they  were  among  the  first  to 
seek  homes  in  a  new  land  shows  their  mettle.  They 
were  of  the  kind  to  whom  the  adventure  of  the  under- 
taking and  the  hope  of  greater  liberty  made  an  instant 
appeal. 

The  mother's  family  were  of  the  scholarly,  less 
adventurous,  sort.  Some  were  school  teachers  and 
professors,  and  one  was  quite  an  authority  on  certain 
branches  of  zoology,  especially  sea-shells.  Through 
her  came  strongly  the  thought  of  study;  of  books; 
of  education  and  its  value;  of  what  the  members  of 
her  family  had  done  in  these  lines  and  what  it  meant 
to  them. 

Thus,  in  the  family  into  which  Russell  Conwell 
was  born,  were  blended  the  practical,  shrewd  New 
England  character;  the  impulsive,  romantic,  imagina- 
tive Southern  temperament,  the  eager  quest  of  adven- 
ture and  zest  of  the  pioneer,  and  the  thirst  for  knowl- 
edge of  the  scholar.  Whether  the  generations  that 
have  gone  have  any  direct  effect  upon  those  that  come 
after  is  a  much-discussed  question  today.  In  regard 
to  ancestry.  Doctor  Conwell,  in  his  biography  of 
James  A.  Garfield,  has  this  to  say: 

''Having  no  faith  in  the  theory  that  the  men  of  today 
are  but  the  aggregation  of  experiences  and  develop- 
ment in  the  past,  and  giving  but  little  credit  to  the 


DOCTOR  CONWELL'S  ANCESTRY  31 

aristocratic  claim  that  ancestry  makes  the  nobleman, 
we  give  the  line  of  the  Garfield  family  for  the  benefit 
of  such  as  may  deem  it  important. 

''The  tendency  of  the  records  is  to  show  that  all 
the  individuals  of  the  different  races  are  born  into  the 
world  with  very  similar  characteristics  and  with  much 
greater  equality  in  mental  endowments  than  aristocracy 
is  willing  to  admit.  It  shows,  too,  that  it  is  not  what 
our  fathers  were  so  much  as  what  we  make  ourselves 
that  determines  our  right  to  nobility  or  praise.  Ances- 
try and  health  wield  a  perceptible  and  sometimes  a 
strong  influence;  but  the  capital  we  are  born  with  may 
be  increased  a  hundredfold  by  our  own  exertion.  It  is 
this  increase  which  constitutes  the  noblest  claim  to 
human  greatness. '^ 


CHAPTER  IV 

The  Conwell  Home  Without  and  Within 

Doctor  Conwell  Describes  the  Daily  Life  of  His  Boy- 
hood. The  Mental  and  Spiritual  Atmosphere  of  the 
Home. 

THE  home  that  Martin  and  Miranda  Conwell 
made  for  themselves,  and  in  which  Russell  H. 
Conwell  was  born,  February  15,  1843,  was  the 
home  of  a  poor  New  England  farmer  of  the 
middle  of  the  last  century.  It  was  situated  in  the 
Hampshire  Highlands  of  the  Berkshire  Hills  of  Western 
Massachusetts,  near  the  town  of  South  Worthington. 
The  house  was  small,  consisting  of  two  rooms  and 
a  lean-to  downstairs,  and  an  attic  upstairs.  It  stood 
on  ground  that  sloped  upward  from  one  of  the  little 
flat,  grassy  meadows  found  so  frequently  in  the  Berk- 
shires.  Through  this  meadow  flashed  a  mountain 
stream,  and  encircling  it  were  hills  and  woods.  Through 
a  gap  in  these  hills  could  be  seen,  far  in  the  distance, 
Mount  Tom. 

It  was  a  beautiful  location.  The  swift  stream  that 
flowed  in  front  of  the  house;  the  vast  woods  that 
enclosed  the  little  home;  and  the  ranges  of  mountains 
that  rose  against  the  horizon  made  a  scene  of  loveli- 
ness that  delighted  the  gaze  wherever  it  rested.  And 
this  beauty  was  ever  changing.  Spring  made  the 
hills  a  mist  of  delicate  colors.  Summer  transformed 
them  into  a  riotous  sea  of  billowing  foliage.  Autumn 
draped  them  with  a  glorious  tapestry  of  red  and  gold 
and  orange;  and  winter  changed  them  into  a  sparkling 
fairyland  of  ice  and  snow. 

(32) 


THE  CONWELL  HOME  33 

Nature  had  lavished  beauty  on  this  spot;  but  she 
had  given  httle  else.  The  farm  was  rocky  and  unpro- 
ductive. Martin  Conwell  toiled  early  and  late  to 
wrest  from  it  a  Hving.  Even  then  he  had  to  work 
at  other  tasks  to  eke  out  the  family  income.  He 
labored  as  a  stonemason,  and  in  the  little  lean-to  of 
the  house  he  opened  a  store. 

The  house  inside  was  sparsely  furnished,  and  to  the 
casual  observer  it  was  a  home  of  poverty.  Miranda 
Conwell  worked  as  hard  as  her  husband  and,  in  addi- 
tion to  her  household  duties  of  caring  for  a  family 
of  five,  she  also  took  in  sewing.  There  were  two 
children  besides  Russell:  a  brother,  Charles,  older,  and 
a  sister,  Harriet,  younger.  Of  this  home-life  Doctor 
Conwell  says: 

*'It  is  a  difficult  matter  for  me  to  realize  that  any 
person  should  now  care  what  was  done  in  those  years 
so  long  gone  by.  That  httle  cottage  in  the  Hamp- 
shire Highlands  of  the  Berkshire  Hills  had  but  three 
rooms  and  a  woodshed;  it  was  very  rudely  finished 
and  poorly  furnished.  As  I  look  upon  it  now,  it 
seems  to  have  been  almost  a  hovel  in  its  construction, 
being  only  one  story  and  a  half  high  and  about  thirty 
feet  square.  The  half  story  under  the  roof  was  not 
finished,  except  that  the  floor  was  of  rough  plank,  and 
it  was  reached  by  a  rude  stairway  of  slabs  from  the 
sawmill. 

^'The  home  life  in  my  father's  house  was  very  plain 
and  simple  in  the  extreme.  I  had  one  brother,  older 
than  myself,  and  one  sister,  younger  than  myself; 
consequently  there  were  five  in  our  family. 

^'Our  food  consisted  chiefly  of  Indian  pudding  and 
baked  potatoes.  Those  luxuries  loom  high  on  the 
horizon  of  time,  and  the  sweetness  of  their  joys  are 
engraved  in  stone  upon  the  hillside  of  my  memory. 


34       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

^^My  father  always  began  the  day  at  sunrise,  and 
we  worked  an  hour  or  two  before  breakfast.  After 
our  simple  repast,  which  was  sometimes  varied  by 
salt  pork  and  cider-apple  sauce,  my  father  always 
read  the  Bible  and  led  in  the  family  prayers.  He 
often  commented  upon  the  Scriptures  when  the  read- 
ing brought  out  any  special  lesson  for  the  good  of  the 
children.  And  there — kneeling  by  the  old  fireplace — 
he  gave  to  his  children  the  foundations  of  morahty, 
industry  and  religion,  which  saved  them  from  many 
a  fall  in  after  years  and  instinctively  caused  them  to 
avoid  bad  company. 

"My  mother  was  always  engaged  in  some  occupa- 
tion having  for  its  end  the  payment  of  the  mortgage 
on  the  farm.  That  mortgage  was  the  great  affliction 
of  our  family;  its  ghost  appeared  on  every  occasion 
and  it  was  often  the  topic  of  my  father's  prayer.  He 
was  a  strong  believer  in  the  duty  of  every  prayerful 
Christian  to  answer  his  own  prayers  when  he  could 
do  so;  and  he  taught  his  children  to  believe  that  it 
was  wrong  to  ask  the  Lord  to  do  anything  for  them 
which  they  could  do  for  themselves.  To  him  prayer 
was  work  and  man^s  extremity  was  the  Lord's  oppor- 
tunity. He  once  said  that  neither  God  nor  man  is 
going  to  push  the  team  of  a  man  who  is  lying  beside 
the  road  smoking.  I  remember  that  he  told  us,  when 
we  were  shingling  the  barn,  that  we  should  remember, 
*If  the  world  sees  a  man  coming  very  fast,  every  one 
will  get  out  of  the  way  for  him  and  will  turn  in  and 
push  as  he  goes  by.' 

'^My  father  and  mother  were  both  very  plain  per- 
sons brought  up  in  the  ranks  of  the  hard-working 
poor  of  the  New  England  hills.  They  had  none  of 
the  luxuries  of  life  and  were  very  sparsely  supphed 
with  the  necessities.     When  I  look  down  upon  this 


THE  CONWELL  HOME  35 

old  home-place  now  from  Eagle's  Nest  Rock  at  the 
top  of  the  mountain,  I  cannot  realize  that  lawns,  fields, 
gardens  and  the  newly-made  lake  are  in  the  same 
locality  as  that  old  cottage  with  its  little  barn  and 
woodshed  and  pig-pen.  Mark  Twain  very  readily 
and  helpfully  said,  'The  fault  with  old  men's  mem- 
ories is  that  they  remember  so  many  things  that  ain't 
so;'  and  I  do  find  it  a  difficult  thing  to  appreciate  the 
extreme  poverty  in  which  the  farmers  lived  in  New 
England  in  the  days  when  I  was  born. 

''The  newly-cleared  mountain  sides,  the  projecting 
ledges,  the  boulders  and  innumerable  small  stones 
which  made  it  almost  impossible  to  plow  any  field, 
did  somehow  return  to  the  cultivators  enough  to  enable 
them  to  sustain  life.  Our  little  cellar  was  only  twelve 
feet  square  and  yet,  as  I  recall  my  childhood  dreams, 
it  was  a  large  dark  cavern  wherein  it  was  dangerous 
to  travel  in  the  dark  from  the  foot  of  the  stairway  to 
the  cider  barrel  or  potato  bin.  The  snow  drifted  so 
deep  in  the  winter  that  we  sometimes  could  tunnel 
under  the  drifts  between  the  kitchen  door  and  the 
barn — a  distance  of  about  twenty  yards. 

"In  the  days  of  our  greatest  prosperity  we  had  three 
cows,  a  horse  and  two  pigs.  My  father  bought  the 
farm  the  year  he  was  married,  agreeing  to  pay  $1,200 
for  the  three  hundred  and  fifty  acres,  mostly  rocks ;  and 
it  took  him  twelve  years  of  hard  work,  strict  economy 
and  privation  to  pay  off  the  mortgage.  My  mother 
used  to  work  late  every  evening  on  suspenders  or 
boys'  ready-made  clothing,  when  she  was  not  engaged 
in  spinning  wool  for  the  old  loom  in  the  attic. 

"Our  cooking  was  done  at  a  large  fireplace  and  the 
kettles  hung  on  an  iron  crane.  There  comes  to  me 
now  a  strong  appetite  when  I  think  what  sweet  odors 
came  from  those  kettles  as  mother  swung  them  out 


36       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

from  over  the  fireplace  to  test  their  contents  with  a 
long  wooden  fork. 

^'My  mother  made  the  cloth  for  our  clothes,  cut 
out  the  garments  and  sewed  them  with  her  own  fingers 
until  my  sister  was  old  enough  to  help.  I  well  remember 
the  time  my  father  persuaded  mother  to  take  a  little 
money  out  of  the  old  pewter  tea-pot  in  the  spare  room 
and  go  to  the  woolen  factory  in  the  town  of  Chester 
Village  and  buy  enough  cloth  to  make  my  brother 
and  me  each  a  pair  of  trousers.  That  was  a  proud  day 
for  us  when  we  made  our  appearance  in  school  in  all 
that  finery  and  it  awakened  as  much  pain  as  joy — 
as  much  jealousy  as  love.  I  remember  a  pug-nosed 
girl  on  the  seat  in  front  of  me  who  turned  round, 
curled  her  lips  and  stuck  out  her  tongue,  thus  deliver- 
ing a  volley  of  shrapnel  and  gas-laden  bombs,  which 
was  worse  to  bear  than  the  shot  and  shell  of  Antietam. 
I  saw  the  grave  of  her  husband  in  Blandford  a  short 
time  ago,  and  by  the  date  on  the  tombstone  I  knew 
that  he  died  one  year  after  their  marriage;  since  which 
time  I  have  thought  that  the  woes  of  life  are  more 
equally  divided  than  we  sometimes  think. 

"We  boys  were  expected  to  do  the  chores  at  the 
barn;  to  bring  in  the  wash  water  and  the  drinking 
water  from  a  distant  spring  in  the  pasture;  to  help 
cut  the  wood  in  the  forest;  to  chop  it  at  the  back  door; 
to  pile  it  carefully  in  the  woodshed;  and  bring  in 
regularly  a  supply  every  night  for  the  fire  the  next 
morning.  We  were  also  expected  to  perform  all  kinds 
of  household  duties,  such  as  washing  the  dishes  and 
sometimes  cooking  the  buckwheat  cakes  for  meals; 
and  we  became  very  skilful  in  taking  the  vegetables 
and  bread  from  the  fireplace  when  the  baking  and 
boiling  were  done.  We  sometimes  assisted  in  rough 
sewing,  and  always  filled  the  straw  beds  in  the  fall 
with  fresh  straw  from  the  fields. 


THE  CONWELL  HOME  37    , 

'^No  intoxicating  liquors  were  allowed  in  our  house 
except  on  the  doctor's  prescription  in  time  of  illness; 
and  the  evils  of  intemperance  were  often  called  to  our 
attention  by  the  example  of  some  intemperate  neigh- 
bors. We  were  taken  to  church  with  our  parents 
every  Sunday,  and  were  early  placed  in  the  little 
Sunday-school  which  followed  the  morning  service. 
My  father  was  sometimes  very  severe  with  his  boys 
but  altogether  indulgent  toward  my  sister.  She  was 
an  anchor  which  we  kept  ever  at  the  windward;  and 
I  fear  that  when  we  so  often  divided  our  little  store 
of  candy — or  gave  her  the  largest  half  of  an  apple 
— it  was  done  for  the  very  selfish  motive  of  winning 
her  friendship  that  she  might  stand  between  us  and 
our  father  when  punishment  was  near  for  having 
whittled  the  pew  in  church  or  eaten  an  apple  when 
the  congregation  was  at  prayer.  She  was  our  House 
of  Refuge  when  we  had  been  fishing  instead  of  hoeing  J 
the  corn  and,  if  it  had  not  been  for  her  wholesome 
fear  of  her  mother,  I  do  not  think  our  father  would 
have  ever  punished  us  for  anything  when  our  sister 
was  near  to  take  our  part.  I  recall  that  he  often 
went  into  the  edge  of  the  woods  to  cut  a  very  supple 
stick  with  which  to  punish  me  severely  for  some 
disobedience;  and  when  his  stern  face  appeared,  with 
stick  in  hand,  I  knew  there  was  only  one  way  out 
of  the  trouble  which  was  beyond  all  human  language 
to  describe,  for  he  had  a  strong  hand  and  a  deter- 
mined disposition  to  make  his  children  do  right.  But, 
suddenly,  my  sister  would  appear  from  some  corner, 
when  she  heard  my  outcry,  and  would  rush  up  and 
catch  father's  arm.  He  would  look  at  her  an  instant, 
then  indignantly  throw  the  stick  on  the  ground,  and 
turn,  muttering,  to  his  work. 

''The  memory  of  that  sister — ^her  love  and  self- 


38       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

sacrifice,  and  the  complete  control  she  had  of  father — 
is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  things  in  all  of  life's  mem- 
ories. Wherever  my  brother  and  I  went  we  always 
corresponded  very  frequently  with  our  sister  and  gave 
her  all  the  details  of  our  various  experiences.  She 
always  read  her  letters  to  father  and  mother  and 
wrote  for  them  when  she  was  at  home.  She  was  an 
untiring  nurse,  a  thorough  school  teacher,  and  patient 
to  an  unusual  degree.     God  bless  the  sisters! 

^'My  brother  was  a  mechanical  genius  and  became 
a  civil  engineer  after  his  term  of  service  in  the  Civil 
War.  He  died  from  consumption  contracted  while 
in  the  service.  He  was  at  the  time  of  his  death  on 
the  staff  of  General  Warren,  surveying  the  Mississippi 
River  for  the  Government. 

'^A  flock  of  sheep  on  the  hillside  were  but  so  many 
white  spots  to  me  in  my  boyhood;  but  that  one  pet 
lamb  and  its  tragic  death,  when  we  needed  something 
to  eat,  is  a  fearful  chapter  in  life's  history.  That  one 
faithful  dog  who  loved  us  more  because  we  were  poor; 
that  one  old  cow  who  warmed  places  for  our  bare  feet 
when  she  arose  on  a  frosty  morning;  that  one  old  mare 
who  was  so  wise  that  she  could  let  down  the  pasture 
bars  with  her  teeth;  that  one  squirrel  in  the  old  box 
with  slats  nailed  across  the  top;  that  one  tame  crow 
and  the  short-lived  woodchuck  who  made  up  in  a  kind 
of  affection,  for  the  kicks  of  the  cow,  the  horns  of  the 
bull  and  the  bite  of  the  blacksnake,  are  intense  facts 
coming  down  through  life  with  a  gleam  of  their  own. 

"So,  probably,  we  boys  were  better  off  with  one  book, 
with  one  hard  bed  in  an  old  attic,  with  no  theater, 
with  no  seashore  excursions,  than  if  we  had  been  let 
loose  to  tear  up  a  great  library  and  throw  spitballs 
at  antique  paintings.  There  was  one  tiger  lily  which 
grew  out  by  the  old  rock  in  our  little  vegetable  garden 


THE  CONWELL  HOME  39 

which  I  have  kept  alive  through  years,  and  over  which 
I  now  sometimes  weep  as  I  think  of  the  generations 
who  have  looked  carelessly  upon  it  and  have  wondered 
why  it  was  allowed  to  grow  in  the  lawn  amid  the  mod- 
em improvements  which  surround  the  rebuilt  old 
homestead.  I  have  seen  the  time  since  those  days, 
when  I  spent  my  last  penny  for  a  loaf  of  bread,  and 
when  a  hard  floor  in  the  city  of  Boston  was  the  only 
bed  that  my  wife  and  I  could  afford.  But  that  bitter 
experience  has  made  bread  as  sweet  as  cake  and  shelter 
a  blessing  ever  since. 

*^He  was  divinely  wise  who  said,  ^It  was  well  for 
me  that  I  bore  the  burden  in  my  youth.'  We  were 
kept  busy  on  the  farm;  in  fact,  I  think  the  best  and 
greatest  university  of  life  is  attended  by  the  country 
boy  on  the  hillside  farm  far  away  from  the  railway 
station,  where  he  is  shut  in  by  the  storms  of  fall  and 
spring  and  especially  imprisoned  in  the  hard,  long 
winter.  We  had  to  make  our  own  implements  and 
do  everything  connected  with  every  trade  which 
touched  our  lives.  We  tanned  woodchuck  skins  and 
prepared  the  pelts  of  foxes  and  muskrats.  We  stuffed 
birds,  prepared  sauces,  canned  vegetables,  dried  apples, 
built  sheds  and  lean-tos,  and  used  the  plane  and  saw 
to  make  stanchions  for  the  cattle.  We  made  wagons, 
sleds,  desks,  bedsteads,  hoes,  plows  and  harness.  We 
manufactured  water  pipe,  locks,  kitchen  utensils, 
blank  school  books,  pens,  pencils,  sugar-buckets, 
traps  and  maple  sugar. 

**We  filed  saws,  hewed  lumber,  peeled  hemlock 
bark  and  gathered  herbs  of  all  kinds  for  medicines 
and  antidotes  for  poison.  We  cultivated  wild  roses 
and  hollyhocks.  We  studied  agriculture  to  send  the 
largest  potatoes  to  the  County  Fair.  We  set  window 
^lass,  made  chains  for  the  'Old  Oaken  Bucket,'  hewed 


40       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

stone,  made  plaster,  laid  walls,  made  our  own  envel- 
opes out  of  wrapping  paper,  and  used  the  white  birch 
bark  for  letter  writing.  We  were  compelled  by  neces- 
sity to  invent  some  new  thing  almost  every  day,  to 
make  some  new  combination ;  and  the  practical  teacher 
in  that  district  school  spent  at  least  one-half  of  her 
time  in  answering  questions  from  the  inquisitive  pupils 
who  were  ever  asking  how  to  do  things. 

''My  father  died  at  the  age  of  sixty  and  my  mother 
at  the  age  of  sixty-three,  both  of  them  having  been 
worn  out  with  ceaseless  work  through  so  many  years 
of  struggle  with  poverty  and  care. 

''The  old  farm  in  the  Highlands  of  Hampshire 
County,  Massachusetts — almost  the  highest  point  of 
land  in  the  state — has  been  my  retreat  through  these 
many  years  when,  overworked  or  in  great  sorrow, 
I  have  desired  to  escape  from  the  'madding  crowd/ 
Charles  Dickens  told  me  at  his  home  in  Gad's  Hill, 
that  he  was  working  with  the  hope  of  securing  enough 
money  before  he  died  to  surround  his  little  estate  with 
a  high  wall  like  that  which  Lord  Tennyson  had  put 
around  his  garden.  Mr.  Dickens  had  become  so 
weary  of  the  adulation  and  publicity  of  his  position 
that  he  wished  to  shut  himself  in  completely  from  the 
world,  and  allow  nothing  to  come  in  the  gate  but  the 
necessities  of  life  and  one  or  two  of  his  most  trusted 
friends. 

"Often  in  my  experience,  which  has  been  far  humbler 
and  far  more  private  than  that  of  Dickens,  I  have 
gone  back  to  the  old  home  and  found  solace,  strength 
and  hope  returning;  and  I  sallied  forth,  after  a  few 
days,  fresh  for  further  effort.  The  possession  through 
life,  of  that  dear  old  mountain  home,  has  been  one  of 
the  gifts  of  God,  immeasurable  in  its  comforting  asso- 
ciations and  constant  in  its  influence  for  good,  from 


MIRANDA   CONWELL 

Mother  of  Russell  H.  Coxwell 


THE  CONWELL  HOME  41 

the  examples  of  loved  ones  of  childhood  who  still  seem 
to  people  it  at  every  twilight  hour." 

The  life  of  the  Conwell  family  was,  therefore,  one 
of  hard  work,  self-denial  and  poverty.  But  it  was 
not  sordid  or  unhappy,  as  is  often  the  case  in  homes 
where  poverty  prevails.  Martin  and  Miranda  Conwell 
did  not  let  themselves  become  entirely  absorbed  in 
the  task  of  making  a  living.  They  took  a  keen  and 
active  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  day,  and  maintained 
in  the  home  an  atmosphere  that  hfted  it  above  the 
deadening  routine  of  constant  labor. 

Martin  Conwell  was  a  tireless  reader.  The  fund  of 
information  he  thus  acquired  was  always  at  the  serv- 
ice of  his  neighbors.  People  came  from  all  parts  of 
the  county  to  consult  him,  and  their  inquiries  ranged 
from  corn  planting  and  potato  raising  to  the  building 
of  houses  and  the  making  of  roads. 

His  sympathies  were  broad  and  humanitarian. 
''The  only  point  upon  which  I  ever  knew  my  father 
and  mother  to  seriously  differ,"  said  Doctor  Conwell, 
in  speaking  of  his  father,  ''was  about  his  insistence 
upon  always  having  an  extra  plate  on  the  table  for 
anyone  who  might  be  going  by  at  mealtime,  and 
who  asked  for  food. 

"My  mother  did  not  fully  approve  of  this  prac- 
tice, but  he  steadfastly  adhered  to  it.  I  remember 
one  man  who  came  rather  regularly — a  fellow  by  che 
name  of  Patch.  He  was  a  seedy-looking  individual — 
no  doubt  a  tramp.  The  fact  that  he  took  advantage 
of  our  hospitality  made  no  difference  to  my  father. 
The  man  was  hungry  and  that  was  sufficient.  That 
place  at  our  table  was  rarely  vacant;  but  even  when 
it  was,  it  was  significant  and  had  its  influence.  It 
was  a  silent  spokesman  for  true  hospitality." 

Martin  Conwell  showed  his  love  for  his  fellowmen 


42       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

in  other  ways,  of  graver  and  more  serious  import  to 
himself  and  his  family.  He  was  one  of  those  who 
helped  fugitive  slaves  to  escape  to  Canada  and,  though 
he  was  in  danger  of  imprisonment  for  the  assistance 
he  gave,  the  personal  risk  never  deterred  him.  The 
stand  he  took  in  this  matter  showed  his  fearlessness 
in  the  cause  of  right,  and  his  determination  to  side 
with  it  regardless  of  the  consequences. 

''Many  of  the  early  years  of  my  life  were  over- 
shadowed by  the  fear  of  my  father's  arrest  by  the 
United  States  marshal,"  Doctor  Conwell  has  said,  in 
telling  of  those  exciting  da^^s  when  the  serenity  of 
that  little  home  was  disturbed  by  the  sudden  appear- 
ance of  one  of  these  fugitives. 

''The  anti-slavery  movement  had  reached  a  state 
of  such  excitement  in  1845  that  many  people  of  New 
England  thought  it  to  be  their  sacred  duty  to  disobey 
the  Federal  law  which  required  the  return  of  an  escap- 
ing slave  to  his  master  in  the  South.  Among  all  the 
recollections  of  childhood  there  is  none  so  sombre  as 
the  memory  of  those  fearful  days  when  mother  and 
us  children  were  in  constant  fear  that  father  might 
be  taken  away  to  prison. 

"During  the  first  ten  years  of  my  childhood  the 
little  loft  over  the  old  woodshed  on  our  farm  was  very 
frequently  occupied  by  an  escaped  slave.  Whenever 
we  saw  the  woodshed  locked  with  a  padlock,  we  knew 
that  a  slave  was  on  the  inside  and  that  father  carried 
the  key.  It  was  not  often  that  we  were  permitted 
to  see  the  runaway,  as  he  or  she  usually  arrived  at 
night  and  was  taken  away  by  father  during  the  night. 
The  persistence  of  those  years  of  gloom  have  remained 
with  me  throughout  life;  for  it  was  a  great  and  dark 
secret  for  the  children  to  keep,  and  we  only  mentioned 
it  to  each  other  in  very  low  whispers.     But  it  filled 


THE  CONWELL  HOME  43 

our  dreams  at  night  and  spoiled  our  luncheon  at  noon 
in  the  schoolhouse,  and  gave  us  hours  of  anxious 
watching  for  father's  return  from  Springfield. 

*^The  line  of  the  so-called  'Underground  Railway/ 
organized  for  the  assistance  of  escaping  slaves,  ran 
from  Virginia  through  Philadelphia,  New  York,  Spring- 
field (Massachusetts),  Bellows  Falls  and  St.  Albans 
(Vermont),  and  my  father  had  charge  of  the  line 
between  Springfield  and  Bellows  Falls.  It  was  a 
great  sacrifice  for  him  to  give  the  large  amount  of 
time  and  money  which  he  used  in  helping  the  colored 
people  to  the  freedom  of  Canada,  for  he  never  received 
a  dollar  or  its  equivalent  in  return  for  his  years  of 
labor  and  expense.'' 

Thus,  Martin  Conwell  set  the  current  of  that  home 
life  toward  large  things.  His  everyday  life  was  an 
example  of  resourcefulness  and  unceasing  industry; 
of  interest  and  participation  in  affairs  outside  of  his 
home;  of  the  need  and  value  of  reading  and  studying; 
of  brotherly  kindness  and  fearless  courage  in  espousing 
any  cause  which  he  felt  to  be  right. 

Miranda  Conwell  was  as  keenly  interested  as  her 
husband  in  the  affairs  of  the  day.  She  was  as  great 
a  reader;  also  a  devoted  Bible  student  and  a  woman 
of  deep  spirituality.  Some  have  described  her  as  a 
mystic.  Doctor  Conwell  himself  says  that  she  was 
deeply  spiritualistic.  She  it  was  who  read  and  explained 
the  stories  of  the  Bible,  biographies  of  great  men,  and 
letters  of  travel  in  the  New  York  Tribune.  Thus  she 
brought  more  directly  and  practically  into  the  lives  of 
her  children  the  atmosphere  of  earnest  thought  which 
she  and  Martin  Conwell  gave  the  home. 

Hence  the  home  life,  though  outwardly  poor  and 
circumscribed,  was  rich  and  without  limitation  in  the 
things  that  really  count.     Life  in  this  family  circle  was 


44       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

in  accord  with  the  best  forces  of  hving;  and  so  the 
Ufe  of  the  children  was  helped  to  the  fullest  and  truest 
expression. 

**I  do  not  know  but  that  my  father  and  mother  in 
their  sacrifices  and  poverty  had  a  happier  life  than 
many  wealthy  people  of  today/'  Doctor  Con  well  says, 
^'I  can  recall  evenings  in  my  childhood  when  my 
father  made  shingles  in  the  kitchen  and  my  mother 
sat  near  him  sewing  on  garments  by  which  she  earned 
a  little  money;  my  sister,  my  brother  and  myself 
played  about  with  such  crude  toys  as  we  could  make 
for  ourselves;  yet  a  spirit  of  cheerfulness  and  content 
reigned  that  is  lacking  in  many  a  luxuriously  furnished 
home.  My  parents  enjoyed  their  sacrifices.  They 
were  happy  in  making  them.  When  one  does  a  thing 
for  love,  he  is  always  happy." 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Friends  that  Came  and  Went 

Doctor  Conwell  Gives  Personal  Recollections  of  John 
Brown,  Frederick  Douglas,  William  Cullen  Bryant 
and  Other  Distinguished  People  Who  Influenced 
Him  in  His  Boyhood. 

THE  earnest,  purposeful  life  housed  in  this  little 
unpainted  farmhouse  on  the  rocky  hillside  was 
a  magnet  to  people  of  the  same  mettle.    Neigh- 
bors who  read  and   thought  dropped   in,  and 
visitors  interested  in  the  affairs  of  the  day  came  and 
went.     The  fireside  became  a  forum  for  the  discussion 
of  the  big  issues  that  were  forging  to  the  front. 

It  was  a  time  when  great  problems  were  stirring 
thought,  and  the  tides  of  feeling  were  beginning  to 
set  strongly  in  certain  directions.  With  a  man  who 
had  as  strong  a  personality  and  was  as  outspoken  in 
his  convictions  as  Martin  Conwell,  and  with  a  woman 
for  whom  life  was  largely  illumined  by  a  spiritual 
light,  the  discussions  about  the  fireside  of  a  winter 
evening,  or  on  the  stoop  in  the  summer,  were  on  a 
high,  thoughtful  plane.  The  questions  of  the  day 
were  probed  to  find  the  right  and  justice  in  them,  as 
well  as  to  discover  their  political  significance.  One 
of  the  events  that  caused  widespread  discussion  was 
the  passing  of  the  Fugitive  Slave  Act.  Of  this  a  New 
England  writer  says: 

"This  law  permitted  a  man  to  swear  before  an  obscure 
magistrate  in  a  slave  state  that  another  man  was  his 
slave;    and  then  required  the  marshals  and  commis- 

(45) 


46       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

sioners  of  the  United  States,  without  considering 
whether  this  ex-parte  affidavit  was  true,  to  arrest  the 
alleged  slave  and  deliver  him  to  the  claimant  on  proof 
only  that  the  person  arrested  was  the  person  men- 
tioned in  the  affidavit,  giving  the  commissioner  if  he 
remanded  the  slave  a  fee  of  ten  dollars,  and  if  he 
decided  against  the  claimant  a  fee  of  only  five  dollars — 
a  small  bribe,  you  will  say ;  but  this  was  a  day  of  small 
things,  and  the  men  who  framed  the  law  thought  the 
difference  worth  making.  By  express  provision  of  the 
law  the  testimony  of  the  alleged  fugitive  could  not  be 
admitted.  Had  any  one  under  such  a  law  sought  to 
take  another's  horse,  the  community  would  have 
risen  in  arms  against  it;  but  when  it  was  used  to 
deprive  a  man  and  his  descendants,  forever,  of  free- 
dom the  American  people  as  a  whole  approved. 

^' There  were  men  who  could  not  submit  to  such  a 
travesty  of  law — men  in  whose  hearts  and  minds  the 
spirit  of  Anglo-Saxon  freedom  was  too  deeply  rooted." 
It  was  such  men  who  gathered  about  the  fireside  of 
Martin  Conwell.  One  who  was  frequently  there  and 
who  voiced  his  opinion  earnestly  and  without  reserve 
was  John  Brown. 

"My  father  held,  for  a  time,  a  kind  of  partnership 
with  John  Brown,  whose  office  was  in  Springfield, 
Massachusetts,  and  who  was  engaged  in  the  purchase 
of  wool  for  various  factories  in  this  country  and  in 
England,''  says  Doctor  Conwell,  in  speaking  of  this 
friend  of  the  family.  "John  Brown  often  visited  our 
little  home  and  always  slept  in  the  northwest  bedroom. 
The  door  of  that  bedroom  I  have  retained  in  its  primi- 
tive shape  through  all  the  changes  which  have  been 
made  on  the  old  estate.  His  homely  advice  to  us  in 
those  days  of  childhood  had  a  most  powerful  influence 
on  our  future  thinking  and  acting." 


THE  FRIENDS   THAT   CAME   AND   WENT       47 

The  business  place  which  John  Brown  occupied  in 
Springfield  is  now  torn  down  and  a  large  hotel  stands 
on  the  site.  It  was  near  the  present  railway  station, 
but  one  of  the  homes  in  which  he  lived  in  Springfield 
is  still  standing  on  Franklin  Street.  It  is  a  two-and-a- 
half-story  frame  building  with  a  piazza  across  the 
front. 

At  the  time  in  which  he  lived  in  it,  this  section  was 
one  of  the  pleasant  residential  parts  of  the  town,  though 
today  it  is  looked  upon  as  one  of  the  less  desirable  dis- 
tricts. Evidently,  however,  the  place  did  not  favorably 
impress  Frederick  Douglas,  who  visited  there.  Writing 
of  it,  he  says: 

"The  house  is  a  small  wooden  building  on  a  back 
street  chiefly  occupied  by  laboring  men.  Respectable 
enough,  to  be  sure,  but  not  quite  the  place,  I  thought, 
where  one  would  look  for  the  residence  of  a  flourishing 
and  successful  merchant.  Plain  as  was  the  outside, 
the  inside  was  plainer.  Its  furniture  would  have 
satisfied  a  Spartan.  It  would  take  longer  to  tell  what 
was  not  in  this  house  than  what  was  in  it.  It  is  said 
a  house  in  some  measure  reflects  the  character  of  its 
occupants.  This  one  certainly  did.  In  it  were  no 
disguises,  no  illusions,  no  make-believes.  Everything 
implied  stem  truth,  solid  principle  and  rugged  economy. 
He  fulfilled  St.  PauFs  idea  of  the  head  of  the  family. 
His  wife  believed  in  him  and  the  children  observed 
him  with  reverence.  Whenever  he  spoke,  his  words 
commanded  earnest  attention.  His  arguments,  which 
I  ventured  at  some  points  to  oppose,  seemed  to  con- 
vince all.  His  appeals  touched  all  and  his  will 
impressed  all.  Certainly  I  never  felt  myself  in  the 
presence  of  a  stronger  religious  influence  than  while 
in  that  man's  house." 

Frank  Sanborn,  one  of  the  best  known  of  Brown^s 


48       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

biographers,  says  of  him:  ''He  sought  perfection  in 
all  his  undertakings."  Emerson  writes  of  him:  ''The 
saint  whose  fate  yet  hangs  in  suspense  but  whose 
martyrdom,  if  it  shall  be  perfected,  will  make  the 
gallows  glorious  like  the  cross."  Thoreau,  speaking 
of  his  death,  says:  ^'He  was  one  who  recognized  no 
unjust  human  laws,  but  resisted  them  as  he  was  bid. 
No  man  in  America  has  ever  stood  up  so  persistently 
for  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  knowing  himself 
for  man  and  the  equal  of  any  and  all  governments. 
He  could  not  have  been  tried  by  his  peers,  for  his 
peers  did  not  exist." 

John  Brown,  with  his  persistence,  his  rugged  ideals 
of  truth  and  honesty,  his  deep  religious  convictions, 
and  who  stood  so  high  in  the  estimation  of  the  best 
men  of  his  time,  came  and  went  in  the  Conwell  home 
with  the  freedom  of  an  honored  friend.  Speaking  of 
the  first  time  he  saw  him,  Doctor  Conwell  says: 

''I  often  glance  back  to  the  Hampshire  Highlands  of 
the  dear  old  Berkshire  Hills  in  Massachusetts,  where 
my  elder  brother  and  myself  slept  in  the  attic  which 
had  one  window  in  the  gable  end,  composed  of  four 
lights,  and  these  very  small.  I  remember  that  attic 
distinctly  with  the  ears  of  corn  hung  by  the  husks  on 
the  bare  rafters;  the  rats  running  over  the  floor  and 
sometimes  over  the  faces  of  the  boys;  the  patter  of 
the  rain  upon  the  roof;  the  whistle  of  the  wind  around 
that  gable  end;  and  the  sifting  of  the  snows  through 
the  hole  in  the  window  over  the  pillow  on  our  bed. 
While  these  things  may  appear  very  simple  and  homely, 
yet  I  mention  them  because  in  this  house  I  had  a 
glimpse  of  the  first  great  man  I  ever  saw.  That  home 
was  far  off  in  the  country;  far  from  the  railroad;  far 
from  the  city;  yet  into  that  region  there  came  occa- 
sionally a  man  or  woman  whose  name  is  a  household 
word  in  the  world. 


THE  FRIENDS  THAT  CAME  AND   WENT       49 

"I  remember  that  in  1852  my  father  brought  home 
a  man  who  was  put  for  the  night  into  the  northwest 
bedroom.  This  is  the  room  where  those  New  Eng- 
landers  always  put  their  friends  because,  perhaps, 
pneumonia  comes  there  first — that  awful,  cold  and 
dismal  northwest  bedroom.  Thinking  a  favorite 
uncle  had  come,  I  went  to  the  door  early  in  the 
morning.  The  door  was  shut  and  it  was  one  of  those 
doors  which  will  immediately  swing  open  if  you  lift 
the  latch.  I  lifted  the  latch  and  prepared  to  leap 
in  to  awaken  my  uncle  and  astonish  him  by  my  early 
morning  greeting.  But  when  the  door  swung  back 
I  glanced  toward  the  bed.  The  astonishment  chills 
me  at  this  moment,  for  in  that  bed  was  not  my  uncle 
but  a  giant.  His  toes  stood  up  at  the  footboard;  his 
long  hair  was  spread  out  over  the  pillow  and  his  long 
gray  whiskers  lay  on  the  bed  clothes,  and,  oh,  that 
snore — it  sounded  like  some  steam  horn! 

^'That  giant  figure  frightened  me  and  I  rushed  out 
into  the  kitchen  and  said,  'Mother,  who  is  that  strange 
man  in  the  northwest  bedroom?'  and  she  said,  'Why, 
that  is  John  Brown.'  I  had  never  seen  John  Brown 
before,  although  my  father  had  been  with  him  in  the 
wool  business  in  Springfield.  I  had  heard  strange 
things  about  John  Brown,  and  the  huge  size  of  the 
man  made  them  seem  doubly  terrible;  so  I  hid  beside 
my  mother,  where  I  said  I  would  stay  until  the  man 
was  through  his  breakfast.  But  father  came  out  and 
demanded  that  the  boys  should  come  in,  and  he  set 
me  right  under  the  wing  of  that  awful  giant.  How- 
ever, when  John  Brown  saw  us  coming  in  so  timidly, 
he  turned  to  us  with  a  smile  so  benign  and  beautiful 
and  so  greatly  in  contrast  to  what  we  had  pictured 
him,  that  it  was  a  transition.  He  became  to  us  boys 
one  of  the  loveliest  men  we  ever  knew.     He  would 


50       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

go  to  the  barn  with  us  and  milk  the  cows  and  pitch 
the  hay  from  the  haymow.  He  drove  the  cattle  to 
water  for  us  and  told  us  many  a  story  until  the  dear, 
good  old  man  became  one  of  the  treasures  of  our  life. 

"He  endeared  himself  to  us  in  many  ways.  One 
of  them  was  by  the  infinite  patience  which  he  showed 
in  teaching  our  old  horse  to  go  home  alone  with  the 
wagon  after  he  had  taken  us  to  school,  and  to  come 
again  after  school  was  over.  Uncle  Brown  used  to 
walk  beside  the  horse  and  turn  it  at  the  proper  places 
until  it  knew  the  way  and  would  start  off  itself,  when 
given  the  word,  and  come  and  go  without  ever  making 
a  wrong  turn. 

"I  remember  Brown  with  love — deep  and  sacred — 
up  to  this  present  time.  However  great  an  extremist 
John  Brown  was,  there  were  many  of  them  in  New 
England.  Wendell  Phillips,  William  Lloyd  Garrison 
and  John  Brown  could  never  agree.  John  Brown  used 
to  criticise  Wendell  Phillips  very  severely.  He  said 
that  Wendell  Phillips  could  not  see  to  read  the  clearest 
signs  of  revolution,  and  that  Phillips  reminded  him  of 
the  husband  who  bought  a  gravestone  that  had  been 
carved  for  another  woman.  When  the  stonecutter 
said,  'That  has  the  name  of  another  person  on  it,' 
the  widower  repHed,  'Oh!  that  makes  no  difference; 
my  wife  couldn't  read.' 

"John  Brown  once  said  that  Wilham  Lloyd  Garri- 
son was  like  the  woman  who  never  could  see  a  joke. 
One  morning,  seated  at  the  breakfast  table,  her  hus- 
band cracked  a  joke  but  she  did  not  smile.  He  said, 
'Mary,  you  could  not  see  a  joke  if  it  were  fired  at  you 
from  a  Dahlgren  gun,'  whereupon  she  remarked:  'Now 
John,  you  know  they  do  not  fire  jokes  out  of  a  gun.' 

"Well  do  I  recall  December  9th,  of  1859— the  day 
on  which  John  Brown  was  hanged.    Only  a  few  weeks 


THE  FRIENDS  THAT  CAME  AND  WENT   51 

before  he  had  come  to  our  house  and  my  father  had 
subscribed  to  the  purchase  of  rifles  to  aid  in  the 
attempt  to  raise  an  insurrection  among  the  slaves. 
The  last  time  I  saw  John  Brown  he  was  in  the  wagon 
with  my  father.  Father  gave  him  the  reins  and  came 
back  as  though  he  had  forgotten  something.  John 
Brown  said,  'Boys,  stay  at  home!  Stay  at  home! 
Now,  remember,  you  may  never  see  me  again,*  and 
then  in  a  lower  voice,  'And  I  do  not  think  you  will 
ever  see  me  again/  But  remember  the  advice  of  your, 
Uncle  Brown'  (as  we  called  him),  'and  stay  at  home 
with  the  old  folks,  and  remember  that  you  will  be 
more  blessed  here  than  anywhere  else  on  earth.  The 
happiest  place  on  earth  for  me  is  still  my  old  home  in 
Litchfield,  Connecticut.' 

''The  hanging  of  John  Brown,  which  immediately 
preceded  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War,  aroused  the 
New  England  people  to  an  indignation  which  was  like 
the  bursting  forth  of  a  great  conflagration.  Our  home 
was  doubtless  very  much  like  that  of  thousands  of 
other  families  in  those  mountainous  states,  and  it 
may  be  that  their  experience  was  very  much  like  that 
in  our  little  home.  On  the  9th  of  December,  1859, 
which  was  the  day  set  for  the  execution  of  John  Brown 
at  Winchester,  Virginia,  my  father  called  his  family 
into  the  kitchen  at  eleven  o'clock  and  commanded 
that  all  should  remain  quiet  without  speaking  a  word 
until  the  clock  struck  twelve.  He  took  down  the 
old  Bible  from  the  mantel  and  seemed  to  make  an 
efl'ort  to  read  in  the  Psalms;  but  he  did  not  read 
aloud  and  his  tears  must  have  soon  blotted  out  his 
view  of  the  words. 

"The  old  bell  in  the  Methodist  Church  in  the  village 
down  the  valley  began  to  toll  and  made  one  stroke 
with  each  minute  of  the  sixty  in  the  hour.     It  was 


52       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  longest  hour  I  ever  experienced.  We  sat  and 
looked  at  the  floor,  listening  to  the  sobs  of  my  mother, 
and  counted  sixty  in  the  interval  of  each  minute. 
I  cannot  dissuade  myself  even  in  these  years  of  my 
age  from  the  deep  impression  that  the  bell  had  a 
divine  voice  and  spake  in  intelligent  language.  I 
have  often  read  in  poetry  and  history  of  the  language 
of  the  bells;  but  never  before  or  since  have  they  ever 
expressed  to  my  ear  and  heart  such  messages  of  sor- 
row, such  hatred  of  injustice,  such  pity  for  the  weak, 
such  appeals  to  God,  and  such  trumpet  calls  to  duty, 
as  came  up  the  valley  from  that  bell  on  that  solemn 
day. 

''My  father  had  received,  only  two  days  before,  a 
letter  from  John  Brown,  which  he  had  written  in  jail 
and  in  which  he  sent  his  love  to  the  boys,  asking  them 
to  think  of  him  sometimes  in  after  life  as  one  who 
had  humbly  tried  to  do  his  duty.  That  bell  emphasized 
all  his  goodness  of  heart  and  repeated  his  good  deeds 
of  kindness  to  us  as  children;  and  while  we  felt  that 
he  was  extreme  and  somewhat  fanatical  in  his  decla- 
rations and  plans,  yet  we  knew  full  well  that  his  heart 
was  set  on  the  service  of  God  and  his  intention  was 
noble  and  pure. 

*'I  suppose  that  the  bells  in  all  the  New  England 
villages  tolled  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  way. 
They  aroused  a  patriotic  determination  to  rid  the 
land  of  what  we  believed  to  be  a  dreadful  curse,  and 
the  call  of  those  bells  furnished  a  great  incentive  to 
the  youth  of  all  the  East  and  North,  when  President 
Lincoln  sent  out  his  call  for  men  to  fight  for  the  pre- 
servation of  the  Union.  The  voice  of  that  church- 
bell  in  the  ever-increasing  width  of  its  sound  waves  is 
said  by  philosophers  to  be  eternal.  But  equally  so 
is  the  influence  of  every  good  man  who  surrenders 


THE  FRIENDS  THAT  CAME  AND  WENT       53 

his  life  for  a  cause  in  which  he  beUeves  he  is  serving 
God,  though  there  may  be  errors  in  the  form  of  his 
service.  k,^,^^ 

''In  our  home  on  the  day  John  Brown  was  hung 
there  was  a  funeral  of  the  sincerest  kind.  We  children 
ate  but  little  and  our  parents  did  not  taste  of  food. 
I  do  not  recall  ever  having  heard  my  father  weep  aloud 
at  any  other  time,  as  he  did  when  the  clock  struck 
twelve  on  that  awful  day. 

''That  experience  filled  us  with  extreme  prejudices 
against  the  people  of  the  South  and,  from  that  day 
until  the  slaves  were  emancipated  by  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, our  souls  were  filled  with  bitterness  and  hatred, 
which  are  the  usual  accompaniments  of  war.  And 
it  has  taken  more  than  half  a  century  for  all  the  people 
on  both  sides  to  see  how  useless  and  fratricidal,  after 
all,  that  war  was.  How  much  better  it  would  have 
been  to  have  accepted  President  Lincoln's  recommenda- 
tion and  purchased  the  slaves  of  the  South  at  their 
normal  valuation  and  set  them  free  without  revolution 
and  without  bloodshed." 

John  Brown  was  not  the  only  man  of  forceful  char- 
acter who  came  into  the  life  of  the  Conwell  family. 
Fred  Douglas  himself  visited  the  home.  Doctor  Con- 
well,  in  describing  the  first  time  he  saw  him,  says: 

"One  night  my  father  drove  up  in  the  dark,  and  my 
elder  brother  and  I  looked  out  to  see  who  it  was  he 
brought  home  with  him.  We  supposed  he  had  brought 
a  slave  whom  he  was  helping  to  escape.  But  in  the 
light  of  the  lantern  a  white  man  was  assisting  to 
unhitch  the  horses  and  put  them  into  the  barn.  In 
the  morning  this  white  man  sat  at  the  breakfast  table 
and  my  father  introduced  us  to  him,  saying,  'Boys, 
this  is  Frederick  Douglas,  the  great  colored  orator.' 

"I  looked  at  him,  and  said,  'He  isn't  black,  he  is 
white.' 


54       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

''Mr.  Douglas  turned  to  us  and  said,  'Yes,  boys, 
I  am  a  colored  man.  My  mother  was  a  colored  woman 
and  my  father  a  white  man.  And,'  said  he,  'I  have 
never  seen  my  father,  and  I  do  not  know  much  about 
my  mother.  I  remember  her  once  when  she  inter- 
fered between  me  and  the  overseer  who  was  whipping 
me,  and  she  received  the  lash  upon  her  cheek  and 
shoulder,  and  her  blood  ran  across  my  face  and 
clothes.' 

"That  story  made  a  deep  impression  on  us.  It 
was  stamped  indelibly  on  our  memories.  Frederick 
Douglas  frequently  came  to  our  house  after  that  and 
my  mother  often  said  to  him,  'Mr.  Douglas,  you  will 
work  yourself  to  death.'  But  he  rephed  that  until 
the  slaves  were  free — and  that  would  be  very  soon — 
he  must  devote  his  life  to  them." 

William  Cullen  Bryant  lived  but  a  short  distance 
from  Martin  Conwell.  Like  Martin  Conwell,  Bryant 
was  deeply  interested  in  the  escape  of  runaway  slaves 
and  this  sympathy  in  a  common  cause  often  brought 
them  together,  probably  more  vitally  than  if  there 
had  been  no  such  bond. 

Doctor  Conwell  has  a  vivid  remembrance  of  Bryant's 
influence  upon  his  early  life.  "I  have  never  forgotten 
the  advice  he  gave  me  one  day,"  Doctor  Conwell  says, 
in  speaking  of  him,  "for  when  I  told  him  that  I  was 
not  able  to  earn  sufficient  money  to  go  away  to  school, 
he  told  me  that  many  of  the  greatest  men  in  America 
had  not  been  able  to  go  to  school  at  all,  but  had  learned 
to  study  at  home,  and  had  used  their  spare  hours  with 
books  which  they  carried  about  in  their  pockets.  After 
that,  for  more  than  thirty  years,  I  carried  various 
books  and  learned  seven  different  languages,  using 
the  hours  of  travel,  or  when  waiting  at  stations,  in 
reading  and  careful  study.    It  always  surprises  a  young 


THE  FRIENDS  THAT   CAME  AND   WENT       55 

man  to  find  how  much  he  can  learn  if  he  used  his  spare 
hours  with  some  book  which  he  has  conveniently 
placed  in  his  pocket.  By  far  the  greatest  part  of  my 
useful  education  was  obtained  in  such  circumstances. 
''I  remember,  too,  once  asking  him  if  he  would  come 
down  to  the  stream  where  he  wrote  ^  Thanatopsis ' 
and  recite  it  for  us.  The  good  old  neighbor,  white- 
haired  and  trembling,  came  down  to  the  banks  of  that 
little  stream  and  stood  in  the  shade  of  the  same  old 
maple  tree  where  he  had  written  that  beautiful  poem, 
and  read  from  the  wonderful  creation  that  made  his 
name  famous: 

"  'So  live,  that  when  thy  summons  comes  to  join 
The  innumerable  caravan  which  moves 
To  that  mysterious  realm  where  each  shall  take 
His  chamber  in  the  silent  halls  of  death, 
Thou  go  not,  like  the  quarrj'-slave  at  night, 
Scourged  to  his  dungeon,  but  sustained  and  soothed 
By  an  unfaltering  trust,  approach  thy  grave 
Like  one  who  wraps  the  drapery  of  his  couch 
About  him,  and  lies  down  to  pleasant  dreams.' 

"We  were  driving  by  his  place  one  day  when  we 
saw  him  planting  apple  trees  in  July.  We  knew  that 
apple  trees  wouldn't  grow  when  planted  in  July,  so 
my  father  called  to  him  and  said,  'Mr.  Bryant,  what 
are  you  .doing  there?  They  won't  grow.'  Mr.  Bryant 
paused  a  moment,  looked  at  us,  and  then  said  half 
playfully,  'Conwell,  drive  on.  You  have  no  part  nor 
lot  in  this  matter.  I  do  not  expect  these  trees  to  grow. 
I  am  setting  them  out  because  I  want  to  live  over 
again  the  days  when  my  father  used  to  set  out  trees. 
I  want  to  renew  the  memory.' 

"He  was  wise,  for  in  his  works  on  ^The  Transmigra- 
tion of  Races,'  he  used  that  experience  wonderfully. 
I  recall  some  of  the  experiments  he  made  for  that 
work — how  he  transplanted  trees  at  all  seasons  and  in 
various  locations  for  the  sake  of  studying  the  effect 


56       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

of  different  exposures  and  soils.  His  work  was  to  me 
a  constant  source  of  wonder  and  speculation." 

In  discussing  the  men  who  greatly  influenced  his 
early  life,  Doctor  Conwell  speaks  warmly  of  those  who, 
though  he  did  not  know  them  personally,  inspired  him 
through  reading  about  their  studying  at  home. 

''Elihu  Burritt,  the  learned  blacksmith,  was  one  of 
the  inspirations  of  my  younger  days,"  he  says.  ''His 
example  influenced  many  boys  of  New  England  to 
improve  their  spare  time  in  the  reading  of  valuable 
books  or  studying  some  language  or  history  or  science. 
The  day  is  not  past  w^hen  in  America  a  young  man  can 
secure  a  very  useful  and  extended  education  by  the 
use  of  his  evenings  at  home.  Those  men  have  become 
the  deepest  thinkers  and  the  most  vigorous  patriots 
who  have  been  compelled  to  secure  their  instruction 
under  difficulties,  and  it  is  a  misfortune  to  be  taught 
too  much.  It  is  often  a  loss  to  have  a  teacher  too 
near  for  consultation,  as  the  naind  ought  to  work  out 
the  problems  for  itself,  in  order  to  secure  that  disci- 
pline of  mind  which  is  worth  more  than  any  aggregation 
of  facts. 

''When  I  began  the  practice  of  law  in  Boston,  my 
home  was  at  Newton  Center,  Massachusetts,  and  I 
made  it  a  practice  to  go  to  my  law  office  at  five  o'clock 
in  the  morning  to  prepare  the  work  for  my  clerks  and 
arrange  the  roster  for  the  day's  practice.  On  my 
way  back  and  forth  from  my  home  to  the  city,  I  learned 
to  read  Hebrew,  Spanish,  Italian,  French  and  German. 
The  early  morning  hours  and  the  desire  for  a  change  of 
thought  made  the  study  exceedingly  fascinating,  and 
each  day  I  looked  forward  with  joy  to  the  hour  I 
would  have  for  the  study  of  a  language  the  next  morn- 
ing on  the  train.  Study  was  not  then  a  drudgery 
but  a  most  exhilarating  sport.     The  facts  and  rules 


THE  FRIENDS  THAT  CAME  AND  WENT      57 

which  I  learned  in  such  circumstances  have  remained 
firmly  with  me,  while  very  much  of  that  which  I  learned 
in  school  and  college  has  faded  completely  from  my 
mind. 

"A  strong  and  determined  young  man  or  woman 
can  work  his  way  up  to  the  highest  intellectual  stations 
and  to  the  noblest  achievements  of  art  or  science  by 
the  exercise  of  patience,  perseverance  and  care  in  the 
use  of  such  text-books  as  can  now  be  secured  at  almost 
any  public  library.  Too  much  dependence  upon  school 
or  the  assistance  of  tutors  is  a  bad  habit  which  often 
destroys  one's  self-confidence  and  defeats  his  best 
ambitions.  I  learned  enough  of  the  Russian  and 
Chinese  languages,  by  devoting  myself  assiduously 
to  study  while  on  my  journey  to  those  countries,  so 
that  I  could  travel  and  secure  the  comforts  of  life  with- 
out difficulty,  and  was  soon  able  to  converse  suflBciently 
for  ordinary  purposes. 

''Every-day  reading,  done  carefully  enough  to  be 
termed  'every-day  study,'  is  an  absolute  necessity  to 
the  achievement  of  the  highest  and  best  of  life,  no 
matter  how  long  a  man  may  have  attended  college 
or  universty.  Education  never  ends  until  the  last 
breath  is  taken.  What  a  marvelous  world  this  would 
be  to  the  intelligent  mind  which  had  never  missed  an 
opportunity  to  learn  something  in  all  its  years  upon 
the  earth.  'But  our  lives  are  filled  with  blank  spaces, 
where  we  might  have  learned  something  which  would 
have  brought  us  satisfaction  of  heart,  and  which  would 
have  given  us  opportunities  to  do  greater  deeds  for 
mankind.  And  it  will  do  everyone  good  to  think 
what  might  have  been,  if  those  spaces  had  been  prop- 
erly filled.  What  a  wonderful  life  that  would  be,  in 
which  there  had  been  no  lost  moments — no  lost 
thoughts — no  lost  good  deeds.'  " 


58       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Another  man  whose  coming  and  going  in  the  Con- 
well  home  had  a  most  beneficial  effect  was  Asa  Niles. 
He  was  a  cousin  of  JVTartin  Conwell's  and  lived  nearby. 
He  had  been  a  Methodist  circuit  preacher,  but  his 
health  had  broken  down  and  he  had  been  compelled 
to  give  up  the  work.  He  was  a  keen  student  of  human 
nature;  a  man  of  wide  reading  for  those  days,  and  a 
great  believer  in  education.  He  was  highly  regarded 
in  the  neighborhood  and  wielded  much  influence.  He 
dropped  into  the  Conwell  home  informally;  added  his 
views  to  any  discussion  that  might  be  going  on  among 
neighbors  or  visitors  there,  and  was  listened  to  with 
deference  and  regard.  The  opinions  of  such  a  man 
influenced  every  member  of  the  family  and  he  held  a 
place  of  high  esteem  in  their  affections.  Because  of 
this,  his  advice  at  a  critical  time  had  a  momentous 
influence  in  shaping  Russell  Conwell's  career. 


CHAPTER  VI 

Early  Years 

Formative  Influence  of  Nature.  Traits  Developed 
by  the  Hard  Work  of  the  Farm.  The  Literature 
of  the  Home  and  Its  Influence  upon  His  Life, 

IN  this  atmosphere  of  hard  work,  earnest  thought 
and  contact  with  the  life  of  the  day,  Russell  Con- 
well  grew  up.  So  far  as  the  ordinary  happenings 
of  his  daily  life  are  concerned,  they  were  much  the 
same  as  those  of  the  average  poor  farmer's  son. 

He  was  a  keen-eyed,  quick-motioned,  active  child, 
full  of  questions  about  the  things  he  saw  in  the  world 
around  him.  The  woods  that  encircled  the  farm  were 
filled  with  animal  life,  and  the  streams  abounded  with 
fish.  The  birds,  squirrels,  woodchuck  and  deer  were 
a  never-ending  source  of  delight  to  him.  He  snared 
the  smaller  animals  for  pets  and  spent  long  hours 
fishing  for  the  trout  that  lay  warily  in  clear  pools  or 
glided  like  shadows  along  the  banks. 

Doctor  Conwell  was  once  asked  if  he  thought  it 
better  for  a  child  to  grow  up  in  the  country  than  in 
the  city,  and  if  the  natural  beauty  all  about  him  in 
his  childhood  days  had  any  especial  effect  on  him. 

'^I  do  not  know  that  it  did,"  he  replied  thought- 
fully. ^'I  do  not  think  a  child  appreciates  such  things. 
Life  is  so  full  of  interest  to  the  young  that,  whether 
he  is  in  the  city  or  the  country,  there  is  always  some- 
thing to  stimulate  his  mind  and  lead  him  on  a  tour 
of  investigation.  And  it  is  this  stimulation  of  the 
mind — this   finding   out   things   for   himself — that   is 

(59) 


60       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

good  for  a  child.  I  will  say,  though,  that  I  believe 
the  outdoor  life  and  the  hard  work  I  had  to  do  gave 
me  the  physical  stamina  that  enabled  me  in  later 
years  to  carry  the  burdens  that  life  brought/' 

The  childish  inquisitiveness  of  Russell  Conwell,  the 
boy,  was  not  confined  to  the  world  of  nature.  His 
thirst  for  information  of  all  kinds  was  so  keen  that 
at  the  age  of  eight  he  was  continually  sending  for 
pamphlets,  circulars  and  newspapers  that  would  satisfy 
the  curiosity  aroused  by  a  chance  advertisement,  or 
tell  him  something  that  he  wanted  to  know.  At  this 
early  age  his  mail  at  the  little  country  post-office  was 
a  matter  of  comment  and  often  jest.  He  was  teased 
and  joked  about  the  mass  of  matter  he  received. 

As  the  years  came  on,  work  took  the  place  of  play. 
Russell  was  compelled  by  his  father  to  labor  long  days 
at  clearing  the  hillsides,  and  hoeing  and  planting.  He 
had  no  more  liking  for  this  work  than  have  most  boys, 
but  by  it  he  acquired  qualities  as  important  as  was 
the  stimulation  of  his  mind  by  the  world  of  nature. 
The  real  crops  which  he  raised  in  those  stony  fields 
were  not  potatoes  and  corn  and  hay  but  patience, 
self-control,  the  sacrifice  of  personal  desires  for  the 
family  good,  and  the  overcoming  of  seemingly  insur- 
mountable obstacles  by  steady,  persistent  work. 

Among  the  traits  of  character  early  developed,  per- 
severance was  most  noticeable.  Many  stories  that  show 
Russell's  unusual  persistence  are  told  by  neighbors. 
When  about  eleven  years  of  age,  his  capture  of  an 
eagle's  nest  in  the  top  of  an  old  hemlock  was  the  talk 
of  the  community.  The  tree  was  nearly  fifty  feet  high, 
had  been  rent  and  splintered  by  lightning,  and  stood 
on  the  top  of  an  outcropping  ledge  of  rock  that  added 
to  its  dizzying  height.  No  one  ^would  have  thought 
it  possible  to  secure  the  nest  except  by  shooting  it 


EARLY  YEARS  61 

down,  but  Russell  determined  to  have  that  eagle's 
nest,  and  he  did  not  stop  until  he  got  it. 

He  climbed  the  tree  until  he  came  to  a  broken  limb 
which  he  could  not  get  by  nor  break  off.  He  studied 
a  moment  and  then  came  down  for  his  jack-knife.  He 
clambered  up  to  the  broken  limb  and  chipped  away 
until  the  limb  was  severed.  Then  he  went  higher. 
It  was  a  giddy  height  but  he  did  not  waver.  About 
ten  feet  below  the  nest  was  a  long,  bare  space  with  no 
knots  or  limbs  to  cling  to.  Again  he  paused  and  studied 
the  situation.  For  a  while  he  seemed  baffled.  Then 
down  he  came,  ran  to  the  house,  got  a  piece  of  clothes- 
line, tied  a  large  stone  to  the  end  of  the  rope  and  once 
more  went  up  the  tree.  The  rope  and  stone  much 
hindered  the  boy's  progress  but  he  kept  going,  and 
when  he  reached  the  smooth  place  again  he  tied  him- 
self to  the  tree.  After  many  attempts  to  throw  the 
stone  and  rope  over  the  limb  above,  on  which  the 
nest  rested,  he  succeeded  and,  by  means  of  this 
arrangement,  scaled  the  bare  stretch  of  trunk  and 
secured  the  nest. 

At  another  time  Master  Russell  worked  half  a  day 
with  iron  bar  and  a  shovel  to  dislodge  a  rock  on  the 
mountainside,  merely  for  the  joy  of  its  crash  down  the 
hill.  He  finally  succeeded  and  the  rock — nine  feet 
high,  ten  feet  in  diameter  and  weighing  tons — thun- 
dered down  the  slope  for  nearly  a  mile,  uprooting  trees, 
dislodging  rocks  and  finally  with  a  crash  that  shook 
the  earth  plunged  into  the  bed  of  a  stream,  where  it 
is  shown  to  this  day. 

Another  trait  that  was  early  noticeable  was  a  strong 
sensitiveness  to  beauty.  As  a  boy  of  ten,  Russell 
Conwell  was  often  sent  by  his  father  to  spend  the 
night  in  the  woods  watching  the  maple  sugar  boiling. 
He  was  tall  and  angular  for  his  age,  and  his  eyes  were 


62       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  largest  part  of  his  thin,  rugged  face.  His  clothes 
were  of  poor  material,  crudely  cut,  and  they  hung 
rather  shapelessly  about  his  bony  figure.  Any  one 
who  saw  this  child  during  the  long  hours  of  the  night 
feeding  the  fire  and  stirring  the  maple  sugar  would 
scarcely  have  expected  him  to  welcome  the  dawn  as 
he  did.  For,  when  the  east  began  to  faintly  flush  and 
the  forest  to  wake  with  the  first  twitterings  and  calls 
of  the  birds,  so  intensely  did  he  feel  the  beauty  of  it 
all  that  he  would  step  outside  the  rude  log  sugar  house 
and  pour  out  his  heart  in  those  wonderful  lines  of 
Milton's: 

"Hail,  holy  light!  offspring  of  Heaven  first-born! 
Before  the  Heavens  thou  wert,  and  at  the  voice 
Of  God,  as  with  a  mantle  dist  invest 
The  rising  world  of  waters,  dark  and  deep." 

A  trait  common  to  many  children — the  desire  to 
dramatize  in  play  the  life  about  them — was  strong 
with  Russell,  even  as  a  small  boy.  And  the  things 
which  his  mother  read  aloud  to  him  made  an  espe- 
cially vivid  appeal  to  his  imagination.  Rarely  did  a 
day  go  by — never  a  week — without  Miranda  ConwelFs 
reading  to  her  children  stories  from  the  Bible  and,  as 
the  little  ones  grew  older,  articles  that  would  interest 
them  from  papers  and  magazines.  As  she  read  the 
Bible  stories  she  made  them  understandable  to  childish 
ears,  and  the  men  and  women  of  the  Bible  became  very 
real  to  the  children  gathered  about  her  knee.  She 
read  and  explained  articles  from  the  New  York  Tribune, 
the  Atlantic  Monthly  and  the  National  Era — rather 
heavy  reading  for  children,  perhaps,  but  not  in  the 
way  she  presented  it  to  them.  The  letters  from  foreign 
correspondents  which  she  read  from  the  New  York 
Tribune  opened  a  new  world  to  Russell.  He  wanted 
to  know  all  about  the  places  told  of,  the  people  who 
lived  there,  and  how  to  get  there. 


EARLY  YEARS  63 

"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  when  it  came  out  as  a  serial, 
was  another  of  the  readings.  Coupled  as  the  thought 
of  this  story  was  with  the  discussions  that  he  heard 
about  the  fireside  and  the  talk  of  John  Brown,  when 
the  latter  visited  them,  it  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  him. 

So,  also,  did  the  sermons  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
which  his  mother  read.  She  usually  followed  these 
readings  with  a  little  talk  about  the  man  himself — 
for  he  was  a  great  figure  in  those  days — of  the  great 
and  good  work  he  was  doing;  of  the  value  to  the  world 
of  a  minister's  life,  and  of  its  untold  influence. 

Many  of  the  things  thus  heard,  Russell  enacted  in 
his  play.  When  but  a  few  years  old,  he  was  heard  ^ 
one  day  loudly  addressing  some  one  in  the  back  yard. 
His  mother  went  to  the  door  and  found  him  mounted 
upon  a  large  rock  delivering  to  the  chickens  the  sermon 
she  had  read  to  him  the  night  before.  She  told  her 
husband  of  this  incident  and  said,  ''Perhaps  some  day 
our  boy  will  be  a  preacher."  It  was  the  earnest  desire 
of  both  Martin  and  Miranda  Conwell  that  Russell 
should  become  a  minister,  and  they  often  referred  to 
this  occurrence  and  expressed  their  desire.  Since  the 
effect  of  thought  upon  action  is  beginning  to  be  better 
understood,  the  influence  upon  the  boy's  mind  of  this 
idea  in  the  home  life,  and  its  frequent  expression,  can 
be  fully  appreciated. 

The  part  of  Eliza  fleeing  over  the  ice,  as  described 
in  "Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,"  was  another  favorite  produc- 
tion of  Russell's.  Near  the  house  was  a  mountain 
stream  that  came  leaping  and  foaming  down  through 
a  gorge  filled  with  huge  boulders,  and  high  over  this 
gorge  was  a  fallen  log.  The  small  boy  saw  the  special 
fitness  of  this  log  for  the  part  he  wanted  to  play.  His 
first  attempt  to  cross  it  made  his  mother's  heart  stand 


64       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

still  and  she  sternly  forbade  the  feat,  but  the  tempta- 
tion was  too  strong.  He  waited  for  a  favorable  chance 
and  again  ran  to  the  log.  This  time  she  whipped  him 
severely.  But  at  the  first  opportunity  he  went  back, 
and  he  did  not  give  up  until  he  had  crossed  the  log. 

The  dramatic  instinct  was  strong  in  Russell  for  many 
years  and  might  have  led  him  to  try  the  stage  had  not 
an  incident  of  his  early  youth  killed,  with  the  keen 
shaft  of  ridicule,  his  budding  talent.  Some  of  the 
boys  and  girls  of  the  neighborhood  were  to  give  a  play, 
and  he  had  been  selected  to  act  the  part  of  a  crazy  man. 
One  day,  while  driving  to  town,  Russell  decided  to 
practice  his  part.  He  had  little  to  say;  merely,  ^' Woe, 
woe,  to  ye  all,  ye  children  of  men,"  but  he  had  to  say 
it  with  fervor,  and  results  show  that  he  did.  He  was 
standing  in  the  wagon  at  the  time,  and  the  horse  was 
trotting.  His  thunderous  ^'Woe!  Woe!'^  brought  the 
horse  to  a  standstill,  but  not  himself.  He  continued 
right  over  the  back  of  the  animal,  down  over  the  shafts 
and  into  the  mud.1  His  face  was  cut  and  his  clothes 
were  torn.  The  incident  itself  might  not  have  quenched 
his  desire  for  the  stage,  but  whenever  he  again  spoke 
about  the  joys  and  distinctions  of  the  actor's  life,  the 
jibing  references  to  this  incident  soon  made  the  subject 
painful  to  discuss. 

Another  incident  concerning  two  calves  of  these 
early  days  is  illuminating  as  a  side-light  on  the  sense 
of  humor  which  is  a  marked  characteristic  of  Doctor 
Conwell,  and  it  also  shows  the  effect  which  a  chance 
remark  frequently  makes  upon  childish  imaginations. 

The  little  store  which  his  father  had  opened  in  the 
lean-to  often  became  an  unofficial  court  room  for  the 
settlement  of  neighborhood  difficulties.  The  flour 
barrel  served  for  the  judge^s  bench;  the  soap  box  and 
milking  stool  provided  accommodations  for  the  law- 


EARLY  YEARS  65 

yers;  and  the  jury,  in  the  form  of  various  neighbors, 
stood  about  amused,  speculative,  or  judicial.  In  one 
such  proceeding  a  neighbor  had  lost  a  calf — a  white- 
faced  calf  with  a  broken  horn — and  in  the  barn  of  a 
nearby  farmer  had  been  seen  a  white-faced  calf  with 
a  broken  horn.  The  coincidence  was  suspicious  and 
the  plaintiff  declared  that  it  was  his  calf.  The  defend- 
ant swore  that  he  had  never  seen  the  lost  heifer,  and 
that  the  one  in  his  barn  he  had  raised  himself.  The 
neighbors  volunteered  their  testimony,  for  the  little 
store  was  crowded.  One  man  said  that  he  had  seen 
the  defendant  driving  the  white-faced  calf  up  the 
mountain  one  night,  just  after  the  stolen  calf  had  been 
missed  from  the  pasture.  The  defendant  denied  this. 
Hot  words  flew  back  and  forth  between  judge,  lawyers 
and  witnesses,  and  it  began  to  look  as  if  the  man,  in 
whose  barn  the  calf  was  placidly  munching,  was  guilty. 

Just  then  Russell,  who  had  been  quietly  enjoying 
the  proceedings  from  his  perch  on  the  counter,  jumped 
down  and  with  a  chuckle  disappeared  through  the 
back  door.  In  a  minute  he  returned  and  solenmly 
pushed  among  the  almost  fighting  disputants  a  white-  ^ 
faced  calf  with  a  broken  horn.  There  was  a  lull  in  the 
storm  of  angry  words.  Here  was  the*  other  lost  calf! 
With  a  bawl  and  many  gyrations  of  tail,  it  occupied 
the  center  of  the  floor.  None  could  dispute  the  fact 
that  it  was  the  calf  in  question.  The  defendant 
assumed  an  air  of  injured  innocence  and  the  plaintiff 
looked  crestfallen.  The  boy  explained  that  he  had 
found  the  calf  among  his  father's  cows,  but  had  enjoyed 
the  heated  argument  too  hugely  to  produce  the  animal 
earlier  in  the  case. 

The  event  caused  much  amusement  among  the  neigh- 
bors and  some  said  that,  if  they  ever  were  haled  to 
court,   they  would  employ  Russell  as  their  lawyer. 


66       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

The  women,  when  they  dropped  in  to  see  his  mother, 
called  him  the  little  lawyer.  Thus  a  thought  was 
dropped  into  a  lively  imagination  that  no  doubt  had 
its  influence  in  after  life,  producing  fruit  ''after  its 
kind." 

All  these  childish  experiences  were  not  without  their 
formative  influence.  The  perseverance  which  he 
developed  as  a  boy  has  been  one  of  Doctor  Conwell's 
chief  aids  in  carrying  his  later  work  to  success.  The 
love  of  beauty  engendered  has  been  of  great  value  in 
his  writings,  his  lectures  and  his  sermons.  His  descrip- 
tions of  nature  have  made  an  instant  appeal  and  been 
one  of  the  sources  of  his  popularity.  The  desire  to 
act  out  in  play  the  images  that  thronged  his  childish 
mind  enabled  him,  in  later  years,  to  give  a  dramatic 
quality  to  his  sermons  and  lectures  that  played  no 
inconsiderable  part,  both  in  holding  the  attention  of 
his  hearers  and  in  fixing  in  their  memories  the  point 
he  wished  to  drive  home. 

Thus  from  his  work,  his  play,  his  reading  and  the 
daily  incidents  of  home  life,  the  warp  and  woof  of  his 
character  were  woven.  In  the  hours  free  from  work 
he  roamed  the  woods  and  fields  and  learned  much  of 
value  from  the  world  of  nature.  When  life  narrowed 
to  hard,  unremitting  toil,  he  ungrudgingly  gave  and 
so  again  received.  Work  brought  the  discipline  that 
in  later  years  was  of  the  utmost  service  to  him. 

Tagore,  the  Hindu  poet,  says,  ''From  my  wallet, 
I  slowly  took  out  the  least  little  grain  of  corn  and  gave 
to  Thee.  How  great  my  surprise  when  at  the  day's 
end,  I  emptied  my  bag  on  the  floor  to  find  a  least  little 
grain  of  gold  among  the  poor  heap.  I  bitterly  wept 
and  wished  I  had  given  to  Thee  my  all.''  By  giving 
largely,  Russell  Conwell  has  ever  received  largely. 


RUSSELL    H.    CONWELL   AT   THE   AGE    OF    TWELVE 

From  a  Daguerreotype 


CHAPTER  VII 

The  Runaway 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  of  His  First  Escapade.     Run- 
ning Away  a  Second  Time  and  Going  to  Europe. 

RUSSELL  CONWELL^S  busy  boyhood  had  an- 
other fruitage.  His  keen  interest  in  the  world 
L  about  him;  his  pleasure  in  the  life  which  it 
offered;  the  opening  of  other  worlds  by  his 
reading;  and  the  delight  he  found,  even  in  visualizing 
their  joys  by  the  power  of  imagination,  made  him  want 
to  see  these  worlds  for  himself,  and  live  their  actual 
life.  As  a  result,  at  the  age  of  thirteen,  he  ran  away 
from  home. 

In  speaking  of  this  event  Doctor  Conwell  says,  ''I 
do  not  suppose  this  incident  will  be  of  much  interest 
to  any  person,  unless,  perhaps,  my  great-grandchildren. 
But  it  illustrates  a  very  important  lesson  to  be  learned 
by  both  old  and  young,  and  it  made  a  deep  impression 
upon  my  actions  in  life. 

"I  had  been  reading  through  the  long  winter  eve- 
nings a  series  of  biographies  of  several  heroes  and  a 
number  of  exciting  volumes  on  foreign  travel,  and  had 
examined  closely  a  volume  of  historic  engravings 
which  had  been  loaned  to  us  by  a  teacher  in  the  dis- 
trict school.  I  w^as  about  thirteen  years  of  age,  and 
my  imagination  had  been  greatly  aroused  as  I  dreamed 
of  what  there  must  be  in  the  great  world  beyond  the 
range  of  mountains  which  surrounded  my  home. 

''When  I  was  driving  home  the  cows  from  pasture 
in  the  evening,  I  would  stand  on  the  hilltop  and  look 

(67) 


68       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

at  the  glowing  western  sky  and  wonder  how  far  away 
it  was  to  China.  I  even  imagined  myself  to  be  with 
some  great  fleet  crossing  an  immense  sea,  and  in  com- 
mand of  one  of  the  men-of-war.  I  hoped  some  day 
to  be  a  Rajah  and  live  in  a  place  decorated  with  pearls 
and  diamonds.  The  smallness  of  our  little  cottage — 
compared  with  the  wonderful  wealth  and  luxury  of 
the  palaces  of  Babylon — filled  me  with  discontent,  and 
I  chafed  at  our  homely  labors  and  rebelled  at  the  fare 
found  on  our  table.  I  felt  that  there  were  great  worlds 
for  me  to  conquer,  which  I  could  never  find  in  my 
native  hills.  I  thought  how  glorious  the  world  must 
be  beyond  my  vision! 

^^One  day  at  a  neighbor's  house  I  read  a  story 
printed  in  the  New  York  Ledger,  about  a  runaway  boy 
who  had  become  a  comrade  of  Captain  Kidd  and  had 
hidden  rich  treasures  in  Florida.  The  adventures  of 
this  boy  and  the  great  boxes  of  gold  which  he  found 
buried  in  the  sand  were  a  continual  harassment  to  me. 

^'One  night  there  came  to  me  the  thought  that  I, 
too,  might  run  away  from  home  and  be  as  great  as 
those  men  in  the  story,  and  all  the  next  day  I  pon- 
dered over  it  until  I  finally  resolved  to  venture  forth 
into  the  great  unknown  world  and  see  its  beauties  and 
seek  its  fortunes.  At  daylight  the  next  morning  I 
took  a  loaf  of  bread  from  the  kitchen  and  my  winter 
overcoat.  With  these  I  crept  out  through  the  attic 
over  the  woodshed  and  slipped  down  to  the  ground 
before  anyone  else  in  the  house  was  out  of  bed.  I  ran 
for  half  a  mile  until  out  of  breath  going  down  the  val- 
ley, and  then  walked  up  the  distant  mountain  side. 

"As  I  clambered  over  a  stone  wall  I  glanced  back 
to  get  a  view  of  my  cottage  home  which  I  had  never 
had  before.  Then  came  the  first  feeling  of  homesick- 
ness which  I  ever  knew.     The  awful  desire  to  go  back 


THE  RUNAWAY  69 

and  the  tyrannical  determination  to  go  on  battled  in 
my  soul  for  a  few  minutes,  until  I  recklessly  turned 
my  back  toward  the  old  home  and  ran  down  the  moun- 
tainside and  into  the  forests  which  covered  the  valley. 
I  followed  the  river  road  down  to  the  railway  station — 
nine  miles  from  home — and  there,  with  a  few  dollars 
which  I  had  kept  in  a  box  as  my  own  money,  I  pur- 
chased a  half-rate  ticket  to  Boston. 

"The  long  journey  of  a  hundred  miles  was  some- 
thing which  has  burned  itself  into  my  brain.  I  was 
going  out  to  see  the  great  world  and  had  launched 
forth  upon  the  deep.  There  was  something  almost 
intoxicating  in  the  experience,  and  my  hopes  and 
imagination  knew  no  bounds. 

''I  reached  Boston  early  in  the  afternoon  and  walked 
down  its  unknown  streets,  gazing  in  the  windows  and 
feeling  quite  hungry.  A  man  at  a  corner  grocery 
store,  seeing  me  awkardly  looking  about,  asked  me  if 
I  could  help  him  for  an  hour  or  two  in  packing  his 
goods,  as  his  boy  had  gone  away  on  a  vacation.  I 
gladly  accepted  his  invitation  and  worked  hard,  and 
he  paid  me  thirty  cents.  I  did  not  tell  him  that  I  was 
hungry;  but  as  soon  as  my  task  was  over  I  started 
out  and  walked  the  streets  for  an  hour  and  found  a 
bakery.  There  I  bought  a  roll  of  hot  bread  and, 
while  eating  it,  walked  the  streets  and  gazed  at  the 
buildings,  w^hich  seemed  like  enormous  palaces  to  me. 

"I  felt  that  I  must  find  work  very  soon,  and  I  tried 
to  go  back  to  the  grocery  man.  But  I  could  not  find 
the  street  and  had  not  seen  the  name  of  it,  conse- 
quently I  could  not  ask  intelligently  of  any  person 
where  it  was.  I  then  entered  several  cheap-appearing 
stores  and  told  the  proprietors  that  I  was  a  farmer's 
boy;  that  my  father  had  kept  a  Httle  grocery  store 
for  a  while;  and  that  I  would  be  glad  to  work  for  my 


70       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

board.  I  now  suppose  that  the  offer  to  work  so  cheap 
destroyed  my  chances  for  employment,  as  my  services 
were  not  accepted.  Then  I  went  from  shop  to  shop 
and  from  restaurant  to  restaurant  to  ask  for  some- 
thing to  do.  But  everybody  seemed  too  busy  to  talk 
to  me,  and  when  the  sun  was  setting  I  stood  on  the 
corner  of  some  street  and  began  to  cry. 

^'A  gentleman  came  along  in  a  hurry  but  stopped  to 
ask  me  if  I  had  been  hurt.  I  told  him  that  I  was 
hungry  and  he  gave  me  some  money  which,  with  the 
little  I  had  left,  enabled  me  to  buy  a  bowl  of  oysters. 
How  good  those  oysters  tasted — fresh  from  the  sea — 
can  never  be  described! 

*' After  the  meal  I  walked  down  to  the  Long  WTiarf, 
which  was  near  the  oyster  saloon,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  wharf  I  noticed  a  hogshead  which  had  been  used 
for  packing  crockery.  It  was  half-filled  with  straw, 
the  head  was  out,  and  it  lay  on  its  side.  As  I  passed 
that  barrel  I  decided  that  I  would  return  to  it  if  I 
were  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  finding  a  sleeping 
place  outside  of  some  house. 

''I  wandered  on  until  darkness  came,  but  kept  my 
landmarks  in  mind,  especially  the  Long  Wharf.  In 
the  evening  I  heard  some  singing  at  a  mission  in  the 
north  end  of  Boston  and  stood  by  the  door  and  listened 
until  I  became  homesick.  I  felt  that  I  was  alone  in 
the  world — absolutely  deserted;  that  my  father  would 
never  receive  me  back;  and  that  I  should  die  of  star- 
vation where  no  person  in  all  the  crowd  would  care. 
I  went  back  and  found  the  old  barrel  and  crawled 
into  it.  I  found  the  straw  to  be  very  soft  and  warm, 
although  the  atmosphere  from  the  sea  was  quite  chilly 
that  evening. 

''I  had  been  sitting  inside  the  cask  but  a  few 
moments  trying  to  make  myself  comfortable,  when  a 


THE  RUNAWAY  71 

large  policeman  came  along  and  looked  into  the  cask 
and  said,  'Sonny!  What  are  you  doing  here?'  I  had 
been  told  that  policemen  arrested  people  and  so  I 
thought  of  the  many  stories  of  prisons,  jails,  and  hang- 
ings that  I  had  heard.  And  I  shivered  till  my  teeth 
chattered  when  I  tried  to  say  that  I  was  alone  and 
did  not  mean  to  do  any  harm  by  going  in  there  and 
sitting  down  awhile. 

*'The  policeman  questioned  me  very  closely,  at  the 
same  time  with  an  unexpected  kindness,  and  sometimes 
with  smiles,  so  that  I  freely  told  him  my  whole  story 
and  why  I  was  there.  He  then  told  me  that  I  would 
find  it  very  cold  sleeping  there,  but  that  I  might 
remain  all  night.  He  also  said  that  he  was  'on  the 
beat'  and  would  see  that  no  harm  came  to  me.  He 
soon  brought  me  a  great  overcoat  and  crept  into  the 
cask  part  way  and  tucked  me  in  as  tenderly  as  my 
mother  used  to  do  in  my  attic  chamber  bed. 

"I  slept  soundly  that  night  and  was  awakened  by  the 
glorious  chimes  of  bells  from  all  parts  of  the  city,  for 
it  was  Sunday  morning.  I  did  not  before  appreciate 
that  there  could  be  so  many  bells  in  all  the  world. 
When  I  came  out  of  the  cask  the  policeman  of  the  night 
before  had  gone  away,  but  had  left  word  with  his 
successor  to  take  care  of  the  overcoat.  The  police- 
man w^ho  had  relieved  my  good  friend  w^as  not  at  all 
communicative  and  seemed  to  have  no  care  w^hatever 
concerning  me.  He  just  rolled  up  the  overcoat  and 
silently  marched  away. 

''I  then  walked  up  the  street  wondering  what  to  do 
for  breakfast,  as  I  felt  very  hungry  again,  had  but 
six  cents  left,  and  saw  nothing  at  that  price  in  any 
window.  Again  the  church  bells  chimed  and  their 
tones  reminded  me  of  the  dear  old  Methodist  bell  at 
home.      I   wondered   what   my    family   were   doing; 


72       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

whether  they  were  frightened  about  me,  and  whether 
father  would  march  straight  to  church  and  say  nothing 
about  my  absence. 

"Then  the  thought  came  that  I  might  not  be  missed 
at  home  as  much  as  I  had  supposed,  and  that  possibly 
they  could  get  along  very  well  without  me.  That  was 
the  thought  that  broke  my  heart.  I  put  my  head 
against  the  corner  of  a  building  and  began  to  cry 
aloud.  A  hand  was  gently  placed  upon  my  shoulder 
and  a  very  kind  voice  said  to  me,  ^My  boy!  Are  you 
in  trouble?^  I  turned,  and  the  strong  and  vigorous 
man  who  looked  so  benignly  upon  me  had  in  his  arm 
a  Bible  and  several  other  books.  I  afterwards  learned 
that  he  was  Deacon  George  W.  ChipmaU;  Superin- 
tendent of  the  Merrimac  Street  Mission.  He  insisted 
on  taking  me  to  a  restaurant  nearby,  and  ordering  a 
breakfast  beyond  all  possibility  even  of  my  unmeas- 
ured appetite — and  he  made  me  promise  that  I  would 
come  around  the  next  corner  to  the  mission  as  soon 
as  I  had  finished  my  breakfast.  I  went  immediately 
to  the  mission  and  he  met  me  at  the  door  with  a  smile, 
called  me  by  name  again  and  introduced  me  to  a 
larger  boy  who  took  me  to  a  class.  But  I  was  too 
terrified  and  sorrowful  to  think  much  of  what  was 
taught  me. 

"After  the  lessons  were  over.  Deacon  Chipman  came 
to  me  and  said,  ^If  you  will  go  with  me,  I  will  find 
you  a  place  to  sleep  tonight  and  will  get  you  a  railroad 
ticket  so  that  you  can  go  home  tomorrow.'  He  said 
that  I  had  been  a  very  wicked  boy  to  run  away  from 
a  good  home  and  from  good  Christian  parents.  He 
also  said  that  I  would  be  very  sorry  if  I  did  not  return 
to  them  and  tell  them  that  I  had  repented  and  would 
do  better  in  the  future.  It  was  a  poor  lodging-house 
where  I  spent  the  night;  but  he  had  given  me  money 


THE  RUNAWAY  73 

enough  for  a  good  breakfast,  and  I  held  my  ticket 
carefully  and  reached  the  Boston  and  Albany  railroad 
station  an  hour  before  the  train  started.  It  was  a 
very  long  wait  and  the  train  went  very  slowly  and 
seemed  to  stop  at  every  second  house  along  the  way. 
But  when  I  reached  the  station  nearest  to  my  home, 
I  alighted  with  a  leap  and  started  almost  on  a  run 
up  the  road  which  led  towards  the  house.  I  was 
exhausted  and  delighted  and  weeping  when  I  crept 
up  to  the  cottage. 

^'My  father  was  out  at  the  barn  and  I  found  mother , 
in  the  kitchen  crying  because  of  her  lost  son.  My  sister 
soon  came  into  the  room  and  gave  me  a  piece  of  her 
mind,  and  went  off  saying  that  she  did  not  want  to 
speak  again  to  any  such  ungrateful  boy.  But  my 
father — true  to  his  calm  characteristics — never  men- 
tioned at  any  time  in  our  after  life,  the  fact  that  I 
had  been  away.  He  went  about  his  work  and  sent  me 
about  my  errands  just  the  same  as  though  I  had  been 
present  all  the  time,  and  never  showed  by  look  or 
gesture  that  he  was  dissatisfied  or  disturbed.  I  wished 
very  much  to  have  him  speak  to  me  about  my  running 
away,  as  I  wanted  to  set  myself  right  with  a  full  con- 
fession and  a  request  for  his  forgiveness,  but  he  gave 
me  no  opportunity.  Still  he  must  have  seen  by  my 
manner  how  repentant  I  was,  and  by  my  willingness 
to  do  any  kind  of  task  with  that  clear  determination 
to  do  it  well,  which  followed  through  the  months  and 
probably  through  the  years." 

This  was  not  the  only  time  when  Russell  ran  away. 
Two  years  later  he  again  left  the  home  nest  and  his 
wanderings  this  time  took  him  much  farther  afield. 
No  friendly  Deacon  Chipman  interfered,  nor  is  it  likely 
that  Russell  would  easily  have  been  turned  from  the 
project,  for  he  had  planned  to  go  to  Europe.      He 


74       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

went  to  Chicopee,  to  an  uncle's,  whom  he  frankly  told 
of  his  intended  trip.  The  uncle  kept  him  for  a  day 
or  two  by  various  expedients  while  he  wrote  to  his 
father  telling  him  the  boy  was  there  and  what  he 
intended  to  do. 

The  father  wrote  back  saying  to  give  him  what  money 
he  needed  and  let  him  go. 

The  young  adventurer  crossed  the  Atlantic  Ocean  by 
working  his  way  on  a  cattle  steamer  from  New  York 
to  Liverpool,  but  it  was  a  homesick  boy  that  roamed 
about  in  foreign  lands.  He  has  said  most  feelingly 
since,  "I  felt  that  if  I  could  only  get  back  home  I 
would  never  leave  it  again."  He  did  not  stay  abroad 
long  and  when  he  returned,  his  father  again  greeted 
him  as  if  he  had  been  absent  only  a  few  hours,  and 
never  by  word  or  action  referred  to  the  subject.  In 
fact,  so  far  as  Martin  Conwell  appeared,  Russell  might 
have  been  no  farther  than  the  next  village. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

School  Days 

Doctor  Conwell  Describes  His  Early  School  Days. 
He  Shows  How  One  Can  Get  a  Practical  and  Useful 
Education  Right  at  Home. 

MARTIN  and  Miranda  Conwell  knew  full  well 
the  value  of  an  education  and  the  children 
were  early  sent  to  the  district  school.  One 
of  the  teachers  under  whom  Russell  studied — 
a  Miss  Salina  Cole — was  of  great  help  to  him.  She 
had  mastered  the  art  of  visual  memory  and  taught 
her  pupils  to  make  on  the  mind  a  photographic  impres- 
sion of  the  page,  so  that  it  could  be  recalled  in  its 
entirety,  even  to  the  details  of  punctuation.  This 
manner  of  study  immediately  appealed  to  Russell. 
It  was  something  to  ^'see  if  he  could  do."  It  was 
also  more  interesting  than  the  usual  schoolroom  meth- 
ods then  in  use,  and  he  quickly  determined  to  master 
the  process.  He  would  concentrate  his  mind  intently 
upon  the  page  before  him  and  then,  when  he  felt  that 
he  had  fixed  it  in  memory,  he  would  close  his  eyes 
and  repeat  it  word  for  word,  including  the  punctuation 
marks. 

With  the  other  pupils,  Salina  Cole  was  not  so  success- 
ful; but  with  Russell  Conwell  the  results  were  remark- 
able. It  was  a  faculty  of  the  utmost  value  to  him  in 
after  years.  Often,  when  in  military  camp  and  far 
from  books,  he  could  recall  page  after  page  of  his  law 
works  and  study  them  during  the  long  days  of  garri- 
son duty  as  easily  as  though  the  printed  book  were 

(75) 


76       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

in  his  hand.  It  was  in  this  way  that  he  learned  two 
books  of  Milton^s  "Paradise  Lost;''  and  so  firmly 
were  they  fixed  in  the  boyish  memory  that,  all  through 
his  later  Hfe,  Doctor  Conwell  could  repeat  them  with- 
out a  break. 

Of  these  early  school  days,  Doctor  Conwell  says: 
*'I  began  my  educational  career  when  I  was  three 
years  old  and  walked  a  mile  with  my  older  brother 
to  the  schoolhouse  set  on  the  rocks  on  one  side  of  a 
rough  highway  between  the  hamlet  of  South  Worth- 
ington,  where  my  father  lived,  and  the  large  hamlet  of 
Ringville,  two  miles  north.  The  schoolhouse  was  built 
halfway  between  two  villages  in  order  to  be  impartial 
in  the  distribution  of  the  educational  privileges  of  the 
town;  and  that  fact  resulted  in  keeping  away  from 
school  a  large  number  of  the  pupils  who  could  not 
walk  so  far  in  the  rain  or  in  the  deep  snow.  I  do  not 
remember  learning  the  alphabet  and,  so  far  as  I  can 
recollect,  the  first  measure  of  education  worth  while 
which  I  received  was  in  learning  to  repeat  from  the 
platform  of  the  schoolhouse,  'Mary  had  a  Little  Lamb.' 

"The  New  England  district  school  in  1845  was  a 
motley  gathering  of  all  ages  and  grades,  and  the  teach- 
ers were  required  to  pass  an  examination  in  reading 
and  writing.  Those  teachers  were  a  strange  con- 
glomeration of  Latin,  Greek,  mathematics,  ancient 
history,  spelling  and  whipping.  Since  these  memories 
are  returning  to  me,  I  am  thinking  again  of  Mark 
Twain's  remark,  Hhat  the  trouble  with  an  old  man's 
memories  is  that  he  remembers  so  many  things  that 
ain't  so,'  but  I  can  assert  without  reservation  that,  in 
the  two  years  of  that  winter  school,  I  was  whipped 
eight  times  in  one  day,  and  usually  for  laughing  at 
something  which  the  teacher  did  not  think  funny. 

"What  strange  changes  enter  into  life  when  you 


SCHOOL  DAYS  77 

stop  to  think  that  a  misplaced  ribbon  in  the  dress  of 
a  teacher  will  fill  the  whole  schoolhouse  with  smiles 
which  are  not  reawakened  in  old  age  by  vaudeville, 
circuses,  moving  pictures,  or  the  greatest  comedy! 
I  have  paid  five  dollars  for  tickets  to  recall  a  good, 
old-fashioned  laugh  and  then  had  to  trust  to  my  own 
imagination  after  I  had  left  the  hall  in  order  to  secure 
any  return  on  my  money.  It  is  also  curious  to  contem- 
plate that  the  children  who  have  the  least  are  usually 
the  happiest,  provided  they  have  the  bare  necessities 
of  life.     All  luxury  seems  to  be  a  curse  to  childhood. 

^'I  recall  a  contest  the  boys  and  girls  of  our  neigh- 
borhood had  as  to  which  one  could  correctly  tell  how 
high  the  spire  of  the  Methodist  church  was  without 
measuring  it.  The  contest  was  to  begin  at  the  stroke 
of  the  bell  and  end  within  a  certain  time.  I  remem- 
ber very  well  the  interest  and  excitement,  and  how  the 
man  who  always  rang  the  bell  on  Sundays  climbed  up 
in  the  belfry  and,  looking  down  upon  the  eager  faces 
below,  gave  the  stroke.  My  cousin  won.  He  figured 
it  out  by  the  use  of  two  shingles  and  later  became  a 
professor  in  the  school  of  technology  at  Boston.  We 
boys  at  home  used  to  solve  all  sorts  of  mathematical 
problems  drawn  from  the  everyday  work  and  imple- 
ments about  us.  I  remember  working  out  the  w^eight 
of  our  grindstone  by  its  circumference  and  momentum. 
Such  methods  were  a  practical  and  interesting  way  of 
learning  arithmetic  and  caused  mathematics  to  appeal 
to  me  like  a  puzzle.  However,  boys  do  not  go  to 
schools  of  this  sort  nowadays. 

''Education  was  in  the  air  of  New  England  fifty' 
years  ago.      A  half  uncle  of  mine  could  speak  and 
write  seven  languages;  and  yet  never  in  his  life  was  he 
in  a  city  of  more  than  five  thousand  people.    He  would 
take  a  book  with  him  to  the  fields  and  talk  Latin  with 


78       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  man  who  was  working  with  him.  Latin  was  spoken 
in  many  of  the  back  districts  of  New  England  in  my 
early  days,  and  the  desire  for  knowledge  was  almost  a 
passion  with  the  people  about  me  when  I  was  young. 

''One  of  the  things  which  I  remember  most  vividly 
in  my  school  days  is  hearing  a  recitation  by  a  large 
boy  who  told  the  story  of  Prometheus  who  had  brought 
down  fire  from  heaven  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  and, 
for  doing  so,  according  to  Greek  mythology,  was  sen- 
tenced to  be  perpetually  eaten  by  vultures  as  he  lay 
chained  to  a  rock.  He  must  always  suffer  and  never 
die!  That  picture  of  everlasting  suffering,  where  the 
attempt  was  to  do  mankind  good,  has  thrown  a  dark 
shadow  across  my  life;  but  opposite  to  it  has  been 
placed  a  figure  on  a  cross  upon  a  hill,  and  the  suffering 
which  was  only  for  this  life,  and  which  brought  to  the 
sufferer  a  far  greater  glory.  What  a  hard  and  awful 
religion  the  Greek  heathen  did  have,  who  thought  that 
this  life  was  all!  And  how  strangely  comforting  is 
the  story  of  the  Christ,  who  teaches  that  suffering  in 
this  life  is  only  a  preparation  for  the  higher  place  in 
the  world  to  come. 

''I  cannot  carry  my  mind  back  to  the  time  when 
I  was  not  led  to  study,  more  or  less,  during  the  long 
evenings,  as  my  father  and  mother  were  determined 
that  their  two  sons  and  daughter  should  have  a  better 
education  than  was  theirs.  When  old  John  Brown  of 
Harper's  Ferry  used  to  visit  our  little  cottage,  on  his 
journeys  to  help  runaway  slaves  from  the  South  to 
the  Canadian  Line,  he  used  to  bring  us  papers  and 
books  which  were  within  the  appreciation  of  childhood, 
and  which  were  very  practical  and  helpful  editions 
concerning  science,  history  and  everyday  philosophy. 
Those  books  made  our  evenings  much  shorter  and  sent 
us  to  school  to  the  very  best  university  that  was  ever 
established. 


SCHOOL  DAYS  79 

''Our  modern  over-emphasis  of  the  advantage  of 
schools,  colleges  and  universities  has  gone  to  such  an 
extreme  now  that  it  works  a  great  amount  of  harm  in 
leading  the  common  people  to  think  that  all  knowledge 
worth  having  is  to  be  secured  only  in  some  highly- 
endowed  university.  The  Abraham  Lincolns,  the 
Elihu  Burritts  and  the  Edisons  who  have  made  the 
greatest  events  in  the  history  of  mankind  succeeded 
without  a  university  training.  Valuable  as  higher 
education  and  culture  are  to  any  person,  yet  it  is  a 
great  mistake  for  a  young  man  or  woman  to  think  that 
school  instruction  is  all  that  is  necessary  to  make  a 
person  of  refinement,  culture  and  learning.  Experience 
is  still  the  very  best  teacher  and  always  will  be;  those 
schools  are  ever  the  best  that  use  the  everyday  expe- 
rience; and  they  are  the  wisest  men  w^ho  get  the  most 
out  of  the  everyday  events  of  life  and  who  see 
the  most  value  and  beauty  in  those  things  which  are 
before  them  daily.  Schools  should  help  experience 
to  give  expression  towards  deeper  and  closer  re- 
search, but,  after  all,  the  real  education  of  Hfe  nec- 
essary to  the  achievement  of  the  grand  things  consists 
in  the  proper  use  of  everyday  observation  and  ex- 
perience. 

^^My  reading  matter  was  the  New  York  Tribune  and  ^ 
the  Bible.  I  place  them  in  the  correct  order,  wishing 
to  be  truthful,  but  my  father  and  mother  reversed  them. 
There  was  an  old  book  of  poems — an  excellent  collec- 
tion— which  we  were  allowed  to  read  any  day  but 
Sunday,  provided  we  were  waiting  for  dinner  or  it 
was  not  bedtime.  But  the  Bible  was  a  well-known  book. 
It  entered  into  our  conversation  and  its  phraseology 
was  the  common  phraseology  of  the  cornfield.  The 
spelling  book  had  some  interesting  reading  at  the  bot- 
tom of  each  page,  although  my  father  did  not  approve 


80       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

of  the  fables  from  Greek  mythology,  and  the  one 
little  fairy  story  that  we  hesitated  to  read  because 
father  disapproved  of  it.  Stolen  fruit  is  sweetest  and 
so-called  poisons  are  sometimes  nutritious. 

"My  companions  consisted  of  the  farmer  boys  and 
girls  of  that  sparsely-settled  district.  Our  social  life 
comprised  a  few  evenings  in  the  winter,  when  a  dozen 
or  more  persons  would  gather  in  some  farmer's  kitchen 
to  pop  corn,  make  maple  sugar,  play  hide  and  seek, 
or  husk  corn,  and  sometimes — when  the  old  folks  were 
accidentally  called  away  by  a  prearranged  plan — the 
young  people  would  get  out  a  violin  or  mouth-organ 
and  dancing  of  a  most  hilarious  kind  ensued.  It  was 
downright  healthy  sport.  Why  has  the  devil  been 
allowed  to  put  his  alluring  attributes  around  the 
healthiest  and  best  expression  of  childhood's  life? 
We  were  all  clumsy  clowns  with  big  feet,  freckled  faces 
and  calloused  hands,  but  very  clever  withal,  and 
expressed  our  pleasures  with  a  holy  freedom  that 
characterized  the  innocent  childhood  of  that  New 
England  country  life. 

"Our  own  home  entertainments  were  occasional 
gatherings  of  the  neighboring  young  people,  whom  my 
mother  and  father  were  always  delighted  to  see;  and 
whenever  my  brother  or  myself  had  the  courage  to 
go  home  with  one  of  the  girls,  my  mother  always  set 
the  candle  in  the  window  to  guide  us  home  along  the 
mountain  roads.  That  'Light  in  the  Window'  has 
been  my  permanent  moral  beacon,  and  it  gleams  with 
increasing  brightness  as  the  pathway  of  life  turns 
over  the  'Great  Divide.'  " 

These  friendly  gatherings  of  which  Doctor  Conwell 
speaks  were  the  usual  social  affairs  of  country  life 
then — spelling  bees,  little  parties,  honey  eats  and 
church  socials.     Meetings  at  various  homes  to  sing 


SCHOOL  DAYS  81 

was  an  important  part  of  the  social  life  of  this  little 
country  community.  ^'I  went  down  to  Knight ville 
to  sing/'  wrote  his  sister  Harriet  to  a  friend.  And  a 
*'Sing"  at  some  one's  house  or  the  church  was  a  fre- 
quent event  in  the  neighborhood. 

Russell  took  an  active  part  in  all  the  school  and 
church  entertainments,  and  his  talent  for  organizing 
and  managing  showed  itself  early.  Many  were  the 
entertainments  he  planned  and  carried  through.  Reci- 
tations, dialogues,  little  plays — all  were  presented  under 
his  management  to  the  people  of  South  Worthington. 
In  one  of  these  plays  he  made  some  additions  of  his 
own.  He  interpolated  a  little  dialogue  in  which  one 
of  the  characters  is  asked  why  he  wants  to  go  to 
heaven,  and  promptly  replies,  ^'Because  I  am  afraid 
to  go  to  hell." 

This,  Doctor  Conwell  says,  graphically  expressed  his 
ideas  of  theology  at  that  period  of  his  life.  It  was 
not  so  much  the  desire  to  do  right,  as  the  fear  of 
punishment,  that  was  the  motive  of  conduct  in 
regard  to  the  hereafter. 

He  attended  a  Fourth  of  July  parade  in  Springfield 
and  was  so  impressed  with  the  marching  and  maneuvers 
of  the  troops  that  he  returned  home,  formed  a  company 
of  his  schoolmates,  drilled  and  marched  them  as  if 
they  were  already  an  important  part  of  the  G.  A.  R. 
He  secured  a  book  on  tactics  and  studied  it  with  his 
usual  thoroughness  and  perseverance.  He  presented 
his  company  with  badges;  and  one  of  the  relics  of  these 
childhood  days  is  a  wooden  sword  which  he  made  out 
of  a  piece  of  board. 

There  was,  of  course,  but  little  money  in  the  home, 
and  the  parents  could  not  give  the  children  pennies 
in  the  lavish  fashion  of  the  parents  of  today.  But 
they  did  give  each  child  a  hen,  and  he  could  have  for 


82       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

his  own  use  the  pennies  received  from  the  sale  of  the 
eggs  of  his  own  particular  fowl. 

"How  dear  to  our  ears  was  the  cackle  of  our  hen," 
Doctor  Conwell  has  often  said.  ''It  meant  a  stick  of 
candy  at  the  store,  a  top,  or  some  other  longed-for 
possession." 

Thus  boyhood  days  passed  with  their  measure  of 
work  and  play.  Money  was  scarce  and  opportunity 
limited,  but  Russell  did  not  let  these  facts  narrow  life 
for  him.  He  took  from  the  life  about  him  whatever 
of  value  it  had  to  give  and,  in  the  crucible  of  the  years, 
it  was  transmuted  into  material  for  life's  needs. 


CHAPTER  IX 

The  Place  of  Music  in  Education 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  the  Value  of  Music  in  a  ChiWs 
Education  and  How  He  was  Able  to  Secure  It.  The 
Benefit  it  has  Been  to  His  Life.  He  Makes  Some 
Suggestions  for  Musical  Programs. 

INTO  the  work  and  play  of  these  boyhood  days 
came  another  interest.  Music  laid  its  spell  upon 
him,  and  its  influence    has  been   felt  all  through 

Doctor  Conwell's  life.  It  has  been  both  a  source 
of  pleasure  to  him  and  one  of  the  most  efficient  allies 
to  his  work.  Speaking  of  the  value  of  music  to  life 
and  the  place  it  should  have  in  a  child's  education, 
Doctor  Conwell  says: 

''My  musical  education  was  a  limited  one;  but  it 
has  given  to  me  many  blessings,  materially  increased 
my  income  in  circumstances  of  need  and  greatly 
enlarged  the  enjoyment  of  life.  It  seems  almost 
impossible  that  any  person  should  now  care  what 
I  did  or  what  I  learned.  I  fear  that  it  is  spending 
time  and  talent  uselessly  to  put  in  a  book  such  mat- 
ters connected  with  a  life  as  private  as  mine.  If, 
however,  I  could  reach  the  attention  of  many  parents 
and  persuade  them  to  give  their  children  a  musical 
education,  I  would  feel  that  it  was  my  clear  duty  to 
urge  upon  them  the  usefulness  of  such  instruction." 

In  Russell's  childhood  days  there  was,  of  course, 
comparatively  little  music  in  the  New  England  homes. 
The  player-piano  and  the  Victrola  were,  as  yet,  un- 
known.     The  opportunity  to  obtain  even  the  rudi- 

(83) 


84       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

ments  of  a  musical  education  seemed  remote,  but 
occasionally  music  came  into  his  life.  In  the  social 
affairs  of  friends  there  was  singing,  and  music  was 
sometimes  a  part  of  the  few  entertainments  which  he 
attended.  And  once  in  a  while  there  was  a  parade 
at  South  Worthington,  when  there  would  be  a  band, 
which  expressed  music  to  childish  ears  in  a  truly 
wonderful  fashion. 

These  experiences  fed  the  love  of  music  within 
him,  and  he  was  always  one  of  the  singers  whenever 
singing  was  on  the  program  of  any  entertainment  in 
which  he  took  part.  But  singing  was  not  enough — 
he  wanted  to  learn  to  play.  Fortunately  the  oppor- 
tunity to  do  so  was  provided  him.  Relating  how  this 
occurred  and  what  an  event  it  was  in  his  life,  Doctor 
Conwell  says: 

''Of  course,  our  life  in  the  mountains  did  not  give 
us  much  of  an  opportunity  to  hear  fine  music;  and  in 
my  childhood  it  was  a  very  rare  thing  for  a  boy  or 
girl  to  possess  a  musical  instrument — even  a  mouth- 
organ  or  a  cornstalk  fiddle.  But,  one  day,  a  skilful 
salesman  for  the  Estey  Organ  Company,  of  Brattle- 
boro,  Vermont,  came  to  visit  relatives  who  lived  in  the 
valley  below  our  farm,  and  he  tried  to  sell  melo- 
deons  to  some  of  the  mountaineers.  I  could  sing 
some  of  the  old  Methodist  hymns,  but  had  no  hope  of 
a  musical  education  until,  one  day,  I  heard  the  agent 
talking  with  my  father  about  the  purchase  of  an 
Estey  melodeon.  He  offered  to  give  my  father  a  year's 
time  in  which  to  pay  for  it  and  take  pay  in  vegetables 
delivered  at  the  railway  station. 

''When  I  overheard  my  father  mention  my  name  in 
connection  with  the  organ,  I  became  greatly  excited 
and  held  a  long  consultation  with  mother  as  to  what 
it  all  meant.     She  made  me  promise  that,  if  they  pur- 


THE  PLACE  OF  MUSIC  IN  EDUCATION       85 

chased  an  organ,  I  would  devote  myself  carefully  to 
the  study  of  music  and  learn  to  sing  'two  or  three  of 
the  church  anthems^  which  she  liked  to  hear  so  much 
at  the  services.  Father  finally  offered  the  agent  a  sum 
within  ten  dollars  of  the  price  which  the  agent  asked 
for  the  instrument.  There  they  stuck  for  several  days 
and  my  nights  were  nearly  sleepless. 

''At  last  my  mother  called  the  agent  to  her,  when 
my  father  was  watering  the  cattle,  and  told  him  that 
she  would  pay  the  balance  herself,  if  he  would  not 
tell  father  that  she  had  promised  to  do  so.  She  had 
three  dollars  in  the  old  pewter  teapot  and,  when  I 
saw  her  give  him  the  money,  it  was  too  much  for  my 
emotions  and  I  went  out  back  of  the  woodshed  and 
had  a  good  cry  of  joy.  I  never  kept  a  secret  in  my 
life  which  was  so  painful  to  hold  as  the  one  connected 
with  that  organ  transaction.  But  I  am  sure  that  my 
father  never  knew  why  the  agent  so  suddenly  came 
down  in  his  price  and  made  the  bargain  with  such 
surprising  cheerfulness. 

"That  organ  was  a  whole  school  of  music  to  me. 
A  primer  in  musical  education  and  several  hymn  books 
completed  my  instruction  books.  But  I  must  have 
annoyed  the  family  greatly  by  my  continual  attempts 
to  work  out  something  worth  while  from  that  strange 
combination  of  musical  instrumentalities.  One  of 
the  keys  of  the  organ  stuck  close  in  its  place  and 
would  not  respond  to  my  touch.  This  led  me  to  make 
a  personal  investigation  of  the  inner  construction  of 
the  instrument  which  was  an  education  in  musical 
mechanics  worth  more  than  I  can  now  estimate. 

''When  my  mother  found  the  organ  lying  around  on 
the  floor  in  small  pieces,  she  was  filled  with  dismay 
and  said  the  things  which  the  best  of  mothers  will 
sometimes  say  in  times  of  great  loss  and  disappoint- 


86       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

merit.  But,  when  I  had  succeeded  in  getting  it  together 
again  in  perfect  order,  she  threw  her  arms  around  me 
and  carried  me  out  to  the  barn  when  she  went  to  feed 
the  horse — something  she  had  never  before  done  since 
I  was  old  enough  to  remember.  As  soon  as  I  began  to 
understand  the  primary  science  of  music,  I  made  a 
flute  for  myself  out  of  an  old  reed,  and  then  worked 
two  days  peeling  bark  to  purchase  a  second-hand 
cornet.  And  finally,  as  a  culmination  of  my  musical 
outfit,  an  old  uncle  gave  me  a  very  fine  old  violin 
which  he  had  laid  aside  years  before. 

*'The  only  neighbor  who  was  near  enough  to  be 
disturbed  by  my  various  noises  was  a  pious  old  widow 
who  came  to  our  cottage  one  day  and  called  my  father 
and  mother  into  the  sitting  room  and  told  them 
solemnly  that  she  thought  they  were  allowing  their 
boy  to  go  too  far  'in  worldly  amusements.*  I  became 
somewhat  confused  as  to  whether  her  purpose  was  a 
really  religious  one,  or  whether  it  was  very  largely  a 
selfish  one,  when  she  very  plainly  and  sharply  stated 
that  she  did  not  like  the  sound  of  that  cornet,  as  it 
seemed  to  her  to  be  so  like  'the  call  of  a  sick  calf.' 
So,  for  a  while  after  that,  out  of  regard  to  my  old 
neighbor's  scruples,  I  was  obliged  to  take  the  cornet 
into  the  woods  when  I  practiced  for  the  coming 
orchestra. 

**In  a  few  months  time  I  was  able  to  play  as  many 
country  boys  usually  do — roughly,  somewhat  out  of 
tune,  and  more  out  of  time.  But  the  girls  in  our 
neighborhood  could  dance  at  any  noise;  and  it  seemed 
to  them  that  the  music  was  very  fine  when  several  of 
us  organized  an  orchestra  for  evening  parties.  I 
became  leader  of  the  band,  learned  to  call  the  cotillions 
and  prompt  the  country  dancers,  and  suddenly  found 
myself  famous  as  a  director  of  balls  and  evening  parties. 


THE  PLACE   OF  MUSIC   IN   EDUCATION       87 

I  rejoice  now  that  I  was  not  able  to  play  with  any 
greater  degree  of  skill  than  I  did,  as  the  fascination  of 
the  music  and  the  flattery  could  easily  have  led  me  away 
entirely  from  the  profession  which  I  afterwards  chose. 
But  the  ability  to  play  various  instruments  well  enough 
for  my  personal  enjoyment,  and  the  increased  appre- 
ciation which  it  gave  me  for  the  great  musical  com- 
positions to  which  I  listen  now  with  such  pleasure, 
made  that  Estey  organ  a  continual  stream  of  delight 
throughout  my  subsequent  years."  Thus  it  will  be 
seen  that  the  purchase  of  an  organ  was  a  wise  invest- 
ment on  the  part  of  Russell's  father  and  mother. 

In  all  of  Doctor  Conwell's  church  work,  music  has 
performed  an  important  and  useful  part.  WTien  he 
first  came  to  the  church  in  Philadelphia — and  for  many 
years  afterward — he  played  the  organ  at  the  prayer- 
meetings  and  led  the  singing  with  an  earnestness  and 
expressiveness  that  attracted  many  to  the  meetings 
solely  for  the  enjoyment  which  they  found  in  that  part 
of  the  service.  But  to  those  who  came  at  first  only 
for  the  music,  the  spiritual  truths  voiced,  eventually 
made  their  appeal  and  fruited  in  beautiful  and  useful 
lives.  Incidentally,  his  love  for  music  has  led  to  many 
episodes,  both  amusing  and  unusual,  as  the  following 
will  serve  to  illustrate: 

In  Doctor  Conwell's  early  Philadelphia  pastorate, 
while  on  a  Sunday-school  excursion  to  the  seashore,  he 
saw  a  cornet  lying  on  a  bench  on  the  pier.  Seized 
with  a  longing  to  play  again  this  instrument  of  his 
boyhood,  he  picked  it  up  and  began  softly  a  familiar 
air.  Soon  lost  to  his  surroundings,  he  played  on  and  on. 
At  last,  remembering  where  he  was,  he  laid  down  the 
instrument  and  walked  away.  The  owner,  who  had 
returned,  followed  him  and  offered  him,  first,  five  dol- 
lars, and  then  ten,  to  play  that  night  for  a  dance. 


38       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

The  man  would  take  no  refusal,  and  later  in  the  day- 
hunted  him  up  again,  and  did  his  utmost  to  persuade 
Doctor  Conwell — not  knowing  who  he  was — to  play 
that  evening,  pointing  out  to  him  what  such  an 
opportunity  might  mean  in  getting  a  future  musical 
engagement. 

At  another  time,  when  crossing  the  Atlantic,  the 
ship  encountered  a  violent  storm  and  was  so  dis- 
mantled as  to  be  helpless.  The  fires  of  the  engines 
were  out  and  the  boat  for  twenty-six  days  drifted  at 
the  mercy  of  the  waves.  No  one — not  even  the  cap- 
tain— thought  they  could  escape  destruction.  During 
this  time,  when  fear  and  despair  ruled,  Russell  Con- 
well's  knowledge  of  music  was  used  to  a  good  purpose. 
He  found  that  he  could  cheer  the  passengers  by  singing 
and  playing  and,  during  those  long  anxious  days,  he 
played  the  old-time  tunes  and  sang  familiar  hymns. 
One  of  the  hymns  was: 

"One  sweetly  solemn  thought 
Comes  to  me  o'er  and  o'er; 
I'm  nearer  home  today 
Than  e'er  I've  been  before." 

Many  years  afterwards,  at  a  religious  meeting  in 
New  Hampshire,  a  woman  told  how  in  this  wreck  at 
sea  she  had  been  comforted  and  inspired  with  fresh 
hope  by  the  singing  of  this  hymn.  Doctor  Conwell 
was  present,  and  the  woman's  remark  reminded  him 
of  how  varied  had  been  the  services  which  a  knowledge 
of  music  had  enabled  him  to  render. 

Doctor  Conwell  has  some  ideas  of  his  own  upon 
the  subject  of  musical  programs.  In  speaking  about 
the  matter,  he  once  said:  ^'I  would  hke  to  see  pro- 
grams, or  even  parts  of  programs,  for  musical  enter- 
tainments planned  with  some  one  thought  in  mind — 
music  that  inspired,  for  instance.     Under  this  head 


THE  PLACE  OF  MUSIC   IN   EDUCATION        89 

could  come  music  that  has  to  do  with  home  hfe,  per- 
haps; or  music  that  expresses  patriotism.  There  are 
many  classes  into  which  music  can  be  divided.  And 
it  seems  to  me  that,  if  a  concert  occasionally  were 
planned  to  bring  out  some  one  thought  that  is  close 
to  the  heart  of  humanity,  such  a  program  would  be 
interesting,  enjoyable  and  inspiring." 

His  mother's  sympathy  with  his  love  for  music,  and 
her  self-sacrificing  efforts  to  develop  it,  thus  brought 
to  Russell  Conwell  a  source  of  usefulness  and  pleasure 
almost  incalculable  in  their  results.  In  regard  to  the 
importance  of  the  study  of  music  w^hen  young,  a  man 
known  internationally  in  the  world  of  music,  says: 

^'The  way  to  love  music  and  to  increase  its  produc- 
tion, is  to  know  it  when  you  are  young — young  indi- 
vidually and  young  as  a  nation.  It  is  much  more 
difficult  to  prepare  people  to  enjoy  music  after  they  are 
grown  up  and  their  minds  have  become  crowded  with 
the  various  interests  of  life.  The  American  nation 
should  not  let  its  youth  slip  by  without  filling  the 
sculs  of  the  children  with  music. 

"As  yet,  the  young  people  here  do  not  have  their 
minds  directed  definitely  enough  in  musical  channels. 
I  do  not  see  groups  of  children  standing  about  a  piano 
in  the  twilight  and  singing  to  a  mother's  accompani- 
ment. I  do  not  see  the  boj^s  of  the  neighborhood 
forming  a  small  orchestra  and  playing  really  fine  music, 
as  they  do  in  France  and  Germany.  Music  is  some- 
thing more  than  mere  entertainment.  It  is  a  serious 
and  permanent  joy  in  life.  It  keeps  the  emotions 
stirred  and  the  imagination  young." 

This  course  had  been  adopted  to  some  extent  in  the 
Berkshire  district  of  New  England,  and  the  value  of 
it — in  at  least  one  man's  Hfe — is  proved  by  Doctor 
Conwell's  career. 


CHAPTER  X 

School  Days  at  Wilbraham 

Earning  the  Money  to  Go.  Working  His  Way 
Through,  His  Studies.  Doctor  Conwell  Describes 
His  First  Public  Debate  There,  Its  Ignominious 
Failure  and  the  Value  of  Debating  Societies.  His 
Work  as  a  Book  Canvasser. 

ONE   spring  evening,  in  1857,  a  debate  took  place 
in  the   district   schoolhouse  which  had  an  im- 
portant   bearing   upon  Russell  ConwelFs   life. 
All   the  neighborhood  was  there — both  young 
and  old — as  entertainments  were  not  very  numerous 
in  those  days  and  everybody  went  to  the  few  that 
were  offered. 

Although  only  fourteen  years  old,  Russell  was  one 
of  the  debaters.  He  was  tall  for  his  age;  spoke  with 
ease;  had  taken  part  in  many  of  the  neighborhood 
entertainments;  and  so  did  not  seem  so  young  as  he 
really  was,  nor  out  of  place  in  debating  with  those  older 
than  himself. 

Among  the  audience  was  Asa  Niles,  an  ex-preacher, 
cousin  of  Martin  Conwell,  and  friend  of  the  family. 
He  listened  thoughtfully  to  Russell's  argument;  to 
his  quickness  in  answering  his  opponents ;  to  his  clever 
thrusts  and  his  ready  replies.  He  observed,  with 
experienced  eyes,  the  boy's  ease  on  the  platform — his 
natural,  forceful  gestures;  and  the  attention  and  inter- 
est of  the  audience. 

The  next  morning  Niles  went  over  to  the  Conwell 
home.    At  the  house,  Miranda  Conwell  told  him  that 

(90) 


SCHOOL   DAYS  AT   WILBRAHAM  91 

both  her  husband  and  Russell  were  out  in  the  field 
plantmg  potatoes.  He  chatted  with  her  a  few  min- 
utes about  the  entertainment  of  the  evening  before  and 
commented  on  Russell's  part  in  it.  When  he  reached 
the  field  he  paused  for  a  few  moments  to  speak  to  the 
boy;  then  he  went  on  to  where  the  father  was  working. 

Doctor  Conwell  says  that  he  can  remember  now  the 
scene — his  father  leaning  upon  his  hoe  and  Mr.  Niles 
earnestly  talking  to  him.  The  boy  did  not  know  what 
the  conversation  was  about;  but  he  was  impressed 
with  the  earnestness  of  Mr.  Niles  and  the  attention 
with  which  his  father  listened. 

Mr.  Niles  was  telling  Martin  Conwell  that  his  son 
had  talents  which  it  w^as  a  duty  to  develop ;  that,  with 
education  and  training,  he  would  undoubtedly  make  a 
speaker — perhaps  a  preacher — the  ambition  dear  to 
Martin  Conwell's  heart.  Niles  rehearsed  the  points 
he  had  noticed  in  the  debate  of  the  evening  before 
that  would  confirm  this  conclusion,  and  he  drew  upon 
his  own  experience  to  prove  to  the  father  the  truth 
of  what  he  was  sajdng. 

Martin  Conwell  promised  to  talk  the  matter  over 
with  his  wife,  which  he  did.  They  both  knew  the 
value  of  an  education  and  wanted  to  give  their  son 
every  help  possible  toward  a  useful  life.  They  w^re 
desirous  that  he  should  be  a  preacher,  but  the  outlook 
appeared  to  be  hopeless.  They  felt  it  would  be  par- 
tiality to  give  one  child  more  than  another  and,  if 
Russell  went  away  to  school,  Charles  ought  to  go  also; 
but  they  could  see  no  way  to  send  either.  The  money 
for  board,  tuition  and  clothes  seemed  utterly  beyond 
hope  of  acquiring.  However,  they  were  a  family 
strongly  knit  together  in  all  their  interests  and,  before 
deciding  against  the  project,  they  took  the  boys  into 
their  confidence. 


92       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

To  Russell — stirred  by  his  reading  and  his  runaway 
experiences  to  a  consuming  hunger  for  more  knowl- 
edge— the  fact  that  his  parents  were  considering  the 
matter  of  his  going  away  to  school  brought  such  joy 
and  determination  to  achieve  it  that  he  said  at  once 
he  would  in  some  way  earn  the  money.  Charles 
heartily  agreed.  The  parents  were  willing  for  them 
to  make  the  effort  and  agreed  that  they  could  go  if 
they  had  the  money  by  fall. 

Then  began  in  that  little  home  work  such  as  it  had 
not  yet  seen.  The  father  toiled  earlier  and  later  that 
the  boys  might  earn  money  by  helping  the  nearby 
farmers.  The  mother  took  in  more  sewing,  stitched 
farther  into  the  night,  and  rose  earlier  in  the  morning 
that  the  day  might  be  longer.  Hattie  relieved  her 
mother  of  the  housework  as  much  as  possible  and  even 
helped  with  such  sewing  as  childish  fingers  could  per- 
form, that  more  money  might  be  earned.  Thus  the 
whole  family  pulled  together  that  the  opportunity  to 
know  more  of  life  might  be  given  to  the  boys. 

"It  was  an  earnest  time,"  says  Doctor  Conwell, 
speaking  of  these  days.  "I  thought  continually  of 
what  it  would  mean  to  go  away  to  school.  After  my 
runaway  trip  to  Europe  I  had  determined  to  get  an 
education,  for  I  saw  what  it  meant  to  life,  but  I  had 
not  seen  the  way  to  do  it.  Now  the  way  was  opening 
and  I  was  sure  I  would  be  able  to  make  the  money; 
yet  at  times  the  thought,  that  perhaps  I  couldn't, 
would  come  over  me  and  overwhelm  me  with  darkness 
and  despair. 

"Charles  Sumner  often  passed  our  house.  I  had 
read  and  heard  much  about  him  and,  as  I  watched 
his  carriage  roll  slowly  along  the  road,  I  would  think 
how  I  would  like  to  do  the  sort  of  work  he  was  doing 
in  the  world.     A  great  longing  would  seize  me  to  do 


SCHOOL  DAYS  AT  WILBRAHAM  93 

something  worth  while  with  my  hfe,  and  then  I  would 
go  to  work  more  determined  than  ever  to  earn  what 
was  needed." 

Of  course,  such  a  spirit  brought  victory.  By  fall 
the  necessary  money  was  acquired  and  the  two  boys 
entered  Wilbraham  Academy,  which  was  situated 
about  forty  miles  from  their  home. 

Wilbraham  Academy  was  at  that  time  the  most 
popular  educational  institution  in  that  section  of  the 
East.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  only  college  preparatory 
school  in  New  England  belonging  to  the  Methodist 
denomination  and,  of  course,  was  a  great  favorite 
with  those  of  that  religious  persuasion.  It  was,  accord- 
ing to  its  charter,  ^^established  for  the  purpose  of  pro- 
moting religion  and  morality  and  the  education  of 
youth,"  and  stood  high  in  the  regard  of  the  people  of 
New  England.  Its  students  came  not  only  from 
Massachusetts  but  from  adjoining  states. 

A  life  very  different  from  any  he  had  ever  known 
now  opened  for  young  Con  well.  He  was  one  of  sev- 
eral hundred  students  that  thronged  the  streets  of 
Wilbraham,  overflowed  the  boarding  houses,  and  filled 
the  classrooms.  To  be  thrown  into  this  eager,  throb- 
bing young  life  as  part  of  it — and  to  find  a  place  in 
it — caused  the  young  student  to  experience  a  host  of 
new  sensations.  He  had  to  stand  alone  among  stran- 
gers and  prove  himself.  The  situation  brought  new 
adjustments  and  an  awakening  in  many  ways. 

Russell  Conwell,  the  student,  is  described  by  his  class- 
mates as  a  tall,  lanky,  rather  awkward  youth,  but 
always  good-natured  and  laughing.  Speaking  of  this 
period  of  his  life.  Doctor  Conwell  himself  says:  ^'I 
was  very  bashful  and  so  poorly  dressed  that  I  kept 
in  the  background  as  much  as  possible." 

He  rented  a  meagerly  furnished  room  in  the  home 


94       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

of  Henry  Brewer,  and  in  it  he  and  his  brother  slept 
and  cooked  their  meals.  A  number  of  the  students 
boarded  in  the  same  house.  Russell  was  regarded  as 
the  life  of  the  place  because  he  played  jokes;  had 
jokes  played  upon  him;  organized  ''Sings"  and  gen- 
erally kept  things  stirring.  He  was  also  a  favorite 
outside  the  boarding  house.  The  boys  of  the  school 
formed  a  company  for  the  study  of  army  drills  and 
maneuvers  and  elected  him  as  drillmaster.  He  made 
a  careful  study  of  the  Manual  of  Arms  of  the  United 
States  Army  and  thoroughly  taught  and  drilled  the 
command  of  students  under  him. 

Russell's  personality  made  him  very  popular  among 
his  fellow  students  and  he  was  warmly  welcomed 
when  he  could  find  time  to  mingle  with  them,  but  he 
did  not  have  many  opportunities  for  social  affairs. 
Although  he  had  earned  enough  to  enter  the  academy 
at  Wilbraham,  he  had  to  work  hard  while  there,  in 
order  to  continue  his  studies.  He  gathered  nuts,  dug 
potatoes,  cut  and  shocked  corn  for  the  nearby  farm- 
ers, and  was  always  on  the  alert  for  any  ''job"  that 
would  bring  him  a  few  dollars.  There  were  days  when 
he  did  not  have  a  nickel  and,  at  one  time,  he  and  his 
brother  lived  for  weeks  on  cornmeal  mush. 

Though  Russell  was  good-natured  and  well-liked  by 
his  fellow  students,  there  was  a  grim  side  to  his  life 
at  Wilbraham.  The  constant  endeavor  to  make  ends 
meet;  the  lack  of  nourishing,  palatable  food  for  a 
growing,  hard-working  boy;  the  pressure  to  master 
his  lessons  in  the  time  left  from  work ;  the  home-made, 
shabby  clothes  in  contrast  to  the  well-dressed  appear- 
ance of  many  of  his  classmates — all  of  these  things 
made  a  somber,  reverse  side  to  the  picture.  But 
despite  these  handicaps  he  made  an  excellent  impres- 
sion, not  only  among  his  classmates  but  in  the 
classroom. 


M'^^ffl 


^m  \:^\  -m 


THE   OLD   DOOR-STEP,   WILBRAHAM   ACADEMY 

Deeply  Worn  by  the  Feet  of  Thousands  op  Students 


i.A     \ 


'%^ 


n 


THE    CAMPUS,    WILBRAHAM    ACADEMY 

Shaded  by  Ancient  Elms 


SCHOOL  DAYS   AT   WILBRAHAM  1)5 

The  studies  of  that  period  were  the  common  Eng- 
lish branches,  for  which  the  tuition  charge  was  four 
dollars  and  a  half  a  month;  and  mental  and  moral 
science,  rhetoric,  mathematics,  philosophy,  botany, 
astronomy  and  geology,  for  each  of  which  an  extra 
charge  of  seventy-five  cents  a  month  was  made. 
Bookkeeping,  which  was  one  dollar  a  month;  ancient 
and  modern  languages,  which  were  a  dollar  and  a  half 
each  a  month;  and  lectures  at  one  dollar  a  month, 
were  also  part  of  the  curriculum.  This  method  of 
payment  is  somewhat  different  from  that  in  vogue 
today,  but  there  was  a  flexibility  about  it  that  made 
it  adjustable  to  a  student's  needs. 

The  text-books  of  those  old  days,  too,  are  interest- 
ing and  include  Andrew  and  Stoddard's  Latin  grammar, 
Robinson's  algebra,  Greenleaf's  arithmetic,  Goodrich's 
history,  Cutter's  physiology,  Caldwell's  elocution, 
Jamieson's  rhetoric,  Upham's  mental  philosophy,  and 
Wayland's  moral  science  and  political  economy. 

The  buildings  of  the  Wilbraham  Academy  were  of 
brick,  ivy-mantled  and,  at  the  time  young  Conwell 
attended,  consisted  of  the  Old  Academy,  Fisk  Hall 
and  Binney  Hall.  They  stood  back  from  the  street 
on  rising  ground  that  swept  on  in  gradual  slopes  to 
distant  hills.  Beautiful  trees  surrounded  the  build- 
ings and  crowned  the  slopes;  and  the  effect  of  this 
great  stretch  of  lawn  with  its  trees  and  simple,  digni- 
fied buildings  and  its  background  of  wooded  hills  was 
very  impressive  and  restful.  Young  Conwell  often 
paced  these  wooded  slopes  for  hours  when  studying 
his  lessons.  More  attractive  to  him  than  classrooms 
or  campus,  however,  was  the  library.  In  speaking  of 
these  early  school  days,  Doctor  Conwell  says: 

"The  library  was  a  most  fascinating  place.  I  had 
never  seen  so  many  books  before  in  all  my  life.     It 


96       RUSSELL  H.   CONWELL  AND   HIS   WORK 

was  such  a  feast  to  me  that  I  simply  could  not  remain 
away  from  them.  I  would  keep  from  fifteen  to  twenty 
books  in  my  room  at  one  time,  and  every  spare  moment 
I  had  I  would  devote  to  them." 

From  these  readings  grew  essays  that  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  professors.  One  in  particular  was 
on  the  creation  of  the  world.  Russell  had  found  a 
book  with  rather  a  novel  theory  on  this  subject  that 
had  fired  his  imagination.  He  had  searched  for  more 
information  and,  having  read  all  that  he  could  find 
on  the  subject,  he  wrote  the  results  of  his  research 
with  various  deductions  of  his  own.  The  paper  caused 
much  comment  and  he  was  invited  to  the  homes  of 
several  of  the  professors  to  discuss  further  the  theories 
which  he  had  advanced. 

But  young  Conwell's  chief  delight  was  in  the  debat- 
ing societies  of  the  institution.  There  were  two  of 
these,  the  Old  Club  and  the  Union  Philosophical 
Society — ^^Philo"  as  it  was  commonly  called.  There 
was  of  course  much  rivalry  between  them.  ^'Philo" 
prided  itself  upon  being  composed  of  thinkers,  and  the 
members  of  the  Old  Club  vaunted  themselves  as  not 
only  thinking  but  expressing. 

Russell  joined  the  Old  Club,  which  is  claimed  to  be 
the  oldest  society  of  its  kind  in  a  preparatory  school 
in  the  United  States,  having  been  founded  in  1826. 
Its  members  say  it  has  been  of  great  value  in  train- 
ing the  students  at  Wilbraham  in  public  speaking; 
and  one  of  his  classmates  said  of  Conwell,  ^'This 
debating  society  was  just  the  stimulus  he  needed  to 
waken  and  deepen  and  train  his  natural  gift  of 
oratory."  Debating  societies  were  not  new  to  him, 
but  this  one  was  a  very  different  affair  from  the  home 
organization,  as  he  found  to  his  sorrow  the  night  of 
his  first  debate. 


SCHOOL  DAYS  AT  WILBRAHAM  97 

''My  first  attempt  at  'a  set  speech  learned  by 
heart,  Y'  he  says,  ''was  when  I  attended  the  Wilbraham 
Academy  in  Massachusetts,  in  1857,  and  when  I  had 
been  made  a  member  of  the  debating  team  at  one  of 
the  ordinary  meetings  of  the  society.  Never  did 
ambassador  to  foreign  court,  or  a  newly-elected  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  feel  the  appreciation  of  his 
honors  more  than  I  did  when  I  saw  my  name  on  the 
written  poster  placed  on  the  bulletin  board  at  the 
door  of  the  society.  I  walked  through  the  pastures 
and  forests  and  the  valleys  and  mountains  around 
Wilbraham  before  school  and  sometimes  after  church, 
and  recited  over  and  over  the  speech  which  I  had 
carefully  written  out  for  the  occasion. 

"So  long  did  I  practice  upon  it  that  it  seemed  impos- 
sible for  me  to  make  a  mistake;  and  my  confidence  in 
myself  was  quite  strong  when  the  hour  for  the  debate 
arrived.  But  I  sat  trembling  and  bathed  in  perspira- 
tion while  listening  to  the  other  speakers,  and  found 
that  some  things  in  my  speech  would  need  to  be 
omitted,  because  of  what  had  previously  been  said. 
When  the  time  came  for  me  to  take  my  place  at  the 
debating  table  a  great  'horror  of  darkness'  came  over 
my  brain.  My  heart  beat  painfully  strong  and  I  lost 
entire  control  of  my  voice. 

"I  remember  that  I  said,  'Mr.  President,'  and  then 
began  to  stanomer  and  tremble.  Finally  I  quoted 
something  which  all  school  boys  probably  used  then 
in  their  first  orations,  and  which  I  had  practiced  upon  so 
as  to  deliver  with  great  effect,  and  I  shouted,  '  Give  me 
liberty  or  give  me  death;'  then  I  sat  down,  but  in  a 
moment  rushed  out  of  the  room  into  the  dark  where 
I  found  some  comfort  in  the  society  of  two  horses 
which  had  been  hitched  to  the  fence  by  some  person 
who  might  have  been  attending  the  debate.     Speaking 


98       RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

in  that  clubroom  was  very  different  from  addressing 
the  neighbors  at  home.  For  many  months  I  could 
not  be  persuaded  to  try  it  again  until  brought  out, 
unexpectedly,  from  my  positive  retreat  by  being  called 
upon  to  say  something  at  a  funeral  of  one  of  the  boys, 
who  had  been  my  playmate  at  school.  The  ease  with 
which  I  did  that  without  any  previous  preparation 
warned  me  that,  if  I  would  succeed,  I  must  be  very 
careful  to  be  natural. 

''Hence,  in  my  life's  work,  I  have  never  written  a 
lecture  or  a  sermon  and  have  dictated  my  books. 
And  while  I  can  see  that  I  have  often  made  failures 
which  cause  me  to  blush  after  many  years,  yet,  with 
my  native  eccentricity,  I  could  have  done  nothing  if 
I  had  attempted  to  read  my  addresses.  I  most 
decidedly  approve  of  writing  out  addresses  and  ser- 
mons and  have  listened  to  many  a  reader  with  deep 
fascination.  But,  for  myself,  I  have  been  unable  to 
accomplish  anything  further,  or  more  polished,  than 
in  doing  my  best  in  what  is  called  extemporaneous 
speech.'' 

Despite  his  first  unfortunate  experience,  Doctor 
Conwell  thoroughly  believes  in  debating  societies. 
'Tree  debate,  where  a  boy  or  girl  is  prompted  to  make 
his  best  endeavor  to  persuade  his  hearers,  is  the  best 
kind  of  oratorical  instruction,"  he  says.  "Enuncia- 
tion, pronunciation,  voice  culture  and  gestures  are,  of 
course,  important;  but  they  are  often  so  magnified 
by  the  student  that  they  are  factors  which  destroy  his 
usefulness  in  public  speech.  In  conversation  once 
with  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips,  this  great  anti-slavery 
orator  said  that  his  most  useful  instruction  was  found 
in  such  a  free  debating  society  and  under  the  same 
embarrassing  circumstances  which  characterized  the 
training  of  Daniel  Webster  in  the  old  district  school  in 
New  Hampshire." 


SCHOOL  DAYS  AT  WILBRAHAM  99 

That  Russell  Conwell  was  a  firm  believer  in  the 
benefits  of  the  Old  Club  and  a  loyal  member  is  shown 
by  the  fact  that  he  marched  the  eight-year-old  son  of 
the  Brewer  home  up  to  the  club  one  night  and  had  him 
enrolled,  not  only  that  he  might  be  benefited  by  the 
club  meetings,  but  that  he  might  not  in  the  years  to 
come  swell  the  membership  of  the  rival  club. 

During  his  second  year  at  Wilbraham  young  Conwell 
was  appointed  to  teach  elocution  and  reading — an 
unusual  honor  at  that  time  for  a  student.  It  meant 
much  to  him  financially,  for  it  was  quite  a  help  towards 
paying  his  expenses.  He  was  compelled  to  leave  college 
during  the  third  term  and  teach  school  in  order  to  get 
the  money  to  continue.  He  kept  up  his  studies,  how- 
ever, and  did  not  drop  behind  his  class. 

Russell  also  earned  money  during  the  last  term  at 
Wilbraham  by  selling  the  biography  of  John  Brown, 
which  had  been  published  by  James  Redpath  of  Bos- 
ton soon  after  the  execution  of  Brown.  Young  Conwell 
was  quite  successful  with  this  book,  the  sale  of  which 
also  brought  him  other  profits  than  money.  In  this 
work  he  began  what  might  be  called  his  first  systematic 
course  of  public  addresses.  He  obtained  permission 
from  the  school  authorities  in  the  districts  which  he 
visited  to  speak  to  the  school  children  upon  the  life 
of  John  Brown;  and  he  visited  regularly  the  various 
schools  throughout  that  part  of  Massachusetts  and 
delivered  addresses  upon  the  life  of  the  man  whom 
he  had  known  as  a  boy,  and  who  struck  the  first  blow 
for  the  freedom  of  the  slaves.  This  method  of  selling 
books  is  a  good  sidelight  on  the  originality  which  has 
ever  been  a  part  of  the  Conwell  method  of  doing  things. 

''Why  did  you  address  the  school  children?"  was  ' 
asked  him  when   he  was   telling  of  his  early  work. 
''You  didn't  expect  them  to  buy  the  book,  did  you?" 


100     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

'^No,"  he  replied,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye;  "but 
children  do  the  best  advertising  in  the  world.  In  the 
course  of  my  address,  I  always  remarked  that  I  had 
a  book  for  sale  that  told  a  great  deal  more  about  this 
unique  man  than  I  could  recall  in  the  few  minutes  at 
my  disposal.  They  would  go  home  and  enthusiastically 
tell  their  parents  what  they  had  heard;  and  when  I 
arrived,  my  book  and  my  errand  were  known — often 
eagerly  awaited — and  the  sale  was  an  easy  matter. 
When  you  get  the  child  in  the  home  on  your  side,  you 
have  a  good  ally.'' 

Russell  Conwell  graduated  from  Wilbraham  in  1859, 
and  his  name  was  down  on  the  program  of  the  gradu- 
ating exercises  for  a  song,  "The  Fine  Old  Irish 
Gentleman,"  and  a  declamation.  The  two  years  at 
Wilbraham  had  been  prolific  in  many  ways.  He  had 
made  a  good  record  in  his  studies  and  had  acquired 
greater  proficiency  in  public  speaking.  He  was  a 
favorite  with  teachers  and  students,  and  had  many 
warm  friends  among  his  classmates.  But  the  most 
inspiring  result  was  that  starting  practically  with- 
out money  or  influence  he  had  won  the  education  that 
had  been  his  objective  and  also  many  warm  friends 
among  teachers  and  students.  This  fact  had  more 
real  life-substance  in  it  for  future  needs  than  mere 
book  learning. 


CHAPTER  XI 

College  Days  at  Yale 

His  Struggle  to  Get  Through  College.      The  Humilia- 
tion of  those  Days,     A  Dip  into  Atheism. 

AS  school  da^^s  at  Wilbraham  drew  to  a  close  for 
/\  the  various  students,  there  was  much  discussion 
A,  V  among  them  about  going  to  college.  The 
value  of  a  college  education,  the  choice  of  a 
career  and  the  purpose  of  life  were  flippantly  or  gravely 
talked  over  by  these  boys  and  girls,  as  the  boys  and 
girls  of  this  age  the  world  over  have  discussed  these 
questions.  The  merits  and  demerits  of  different  col- 
leges and  universities  were  described  with  the  frankness 
of  the  outspoken,  youthful  mind. 

Many  of  the  students  at  Wilbraham  had  relatives 
at  college.  The  faculties  of  the  various  institutions, 
the  records  of  the  graduates,  the  expenses  of  attend- 
ance— all  the  minutiae  of  life  there  came  under  the 
microscopic  eye  of  the  youth  at  Wilbraham  for 
dissection. 

Russell  Conwell  listened  with  an  attentive  ear.  He 
had  determined  to  go  to  college,  because  his  two  years 
at  Wilbraham  had  shown  him  the  need  of  a  more 
complete  education  than  the  academy  could  give. 
No  matter  how  hard  the  fight  might  be  to  secure  this, 
he  saw  that  it  would  be  better  to  make  the  struggle 
than  to  go  through  hfe  with  his  education  incomplete. 

His  first  need  was  to  find  the  college  best  suited  to 
his  circumstances.  He,  therefore,  kept  an  open  ear 
to  all  the  discussions  that  went  on  about  him  as  to  the 

(101) 


102     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

various  colleges,  their  methods  and  standing.  Thus 
he  learned  from  fellow  students  whose  brothers  or 
other  relatives  had  studied  at  Yale,  and  from  pro- 
fessors at  Wilbraham  who  were  graduates  of  Yale  or 
familiar  with  it,  that  the  faculty  at  Yale  were  friendly 
to  the  poor  boy  and  would  often  help  him  outside  of 
school  hours  with  his  studies.  It  was  this  information 
that  decided  him  to  go  to  Yale.  From  all  he  had 
heard,  he  believed  that  the  friendless  poor  boy  had  a 
better  chance  at  Yale  than  at  some  of  the  other  uni- 
versities.    And  so  Yale  became  his  choice. 

Russell  Conwell  entered  Yale  in  1860.  He  rented 
a  room  across  the  street  from  the  New  Haven  Hotel 
and  secured  a  position  at  the  hotel  as  assistant  to  the 
steward.  His  work  began  at  half-past  four  in  the  morn- 
ing, and  his  duties  were  to  help  with  the  marketing, 
make  the  dining-room  ready  for  meals,  aid  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  vegetables  and  assist  with  any  other  work 
that  came  within  the  province  of  the  steward.  For  this 
service  he  received  *'left  over''  food.  Therefore  he  had 
to  work  at  other  things  in  order  to  earn  enough  for  his 
room  rent,  his  tuition  and  clothes,  and,  as  at  Wilbraham, 
he  took  any  job  he  could  get. 

But  Russell  found  himself  in  a  very  different  atmos- 
phere from  that  at  Wilbraham.  There  was  at  Yale  a 
stronger  contrast  between  the  rich  students  and  the 
poor  students;  and  much  greater  wealth  was  in  evi- 
dence. There  was  also  a  larger  number  of  students, 
and  the  friendly  atmosphere  of  the  little  New  England 
town  with  its  long,  elm-shaded  street,  its  httle  white 
houses  and  its  student  camaraderie  was  lacking. 
Then,  too,  it  took  more  money  for  the  expenses  at 
Yale,  and  this  entailed  more  work. 

Hence  Russell  Conwell  was  httle  known  among  his 
classmates  at  Yale.     He  was  sensitive,  and  it  was  a 


COLLEGE  DAYS  AT  YALE  103 

great  humiliation  to  him  to  go  about  in  cheap,  shabby 
clothes,  his  coat  sleeves  and  trousers  frayed  as,  he 
says,  was  often  the  case.  He  had  the  natural,  boyish 
desire  to  look  well  and  to  take  part  in  the  usual  gayeties 
of  student  life.  He  saw  all  about  him  happy,  care-free 
boys  of  his  own  age,  well  dressed,  with  money  for 
parties,  for  horses  and  carriages  and  for  club  life.  But 
he  had  no  money  for  any  of  these  things  and  so 
he  never  touched  this  side  of  college  life.  He  came  and 
went  to  the  classes  solitary  and  friendless.  He  joined 
no  clubs  and  he  took  no  part  in  debates.  He  worked 
hard  and  studied  hard.  ''Silent  as  a  sphinx,"  those 
of  his  classmates  at  Yale,  who  remember  him,  describe 
him.  This  was  not  his  natural  temperament;  it  was 
but  the  result  of  the  conditions  about  him.  For  the 
first  time  in  his  life,  perhaps,  he  became  introspec- 
tive and  he  lived  intensively  instead  of  in  the  world 
about  him. 

This  isolation  from  the  social  life  of  the  other  college 
students  had  one  good  result.  It  enabled  Russell 
Con  well  to  accomplish  more  in  his  studies  than  other- 
wise he  would  have  been  able  to  do.  He  found  pro- 
fessors who  were  willing  to  help  him  outside  of  school 
hours,  and  he  took  two  courses — the  classical  course 
and  the  law  course — at  the  same  time.  It  is  a  feat 
that  few  students  have  ever  accomplished.  That  he 
did  it,  in  addition  to  the  work  he  was  compelled  to 
do  to  pay  his  way,  shows  with  what  intensity  he  studied 
and  at  what  a  white  heat  burned  his  desire  for  an  edu- 
cation. Nothing  could  stand  against  his  resolve.  All 
obstacles  fell  before  it.  He  had  proved  before — in 
smaller  ways — what  determination  will  do.  The 
principle,  he  found,  held  good  as  he  went  into  larger 
things. 

This  absorbing  ambition  to  get  an  education  helped 


104     RUSSELL  EL  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

young  Conwell  in  another  way.  It  carried  him  safely 
past  temptations  which — had  his  mind  been  less  cen- 
tered upon  one  object — might,  in  his  entire  isolation 
from  the  usual  social  life  of  the  young,  have  laid  hold 
upon  him.  But  life  just  then  had  for  him  but  one 
object — the  reaching  out  for  greater  fulfilment;  and 
so,  for  him,  the  evils  of  the  college  town  did  not  exist. 

But  the  humiliations  he  suffered ;  the  contrast  he  saw 
between  the  rich  and  poor;  the  thought  of  the  poverty 
and  toil  of  his  God-fearing  father  and  mother  and  the 
wealth  and  ease  of  many  who  had  no  regard  for  a  so- 
called  all-powerful  Deity,  together  with  some  of  his 
studies,  gave  him  the  drift  toward  atheism  that 
developed  at  this  period  of  his  life. 

Church-going  had  been  torture  to  Russell.  As  his  mind 
^went  back  to  those  long  hours  in  the  little  meeting 
house  at  home,  where  he  had  to  keep  awake  or  be 
whipped,  his  reason  revolted  at  beheving  any  good 
could  be  evolved  from  so  much  misery.  Nor  could  he 
see  that  his  parents  had  gained  anything  by  their 
faith.  About  him  were  many  who  had  no  such  belief 
as  theirs,  yet  were  in  far  better  circumstances.  He 
had  no  deep  understanding  of  the  vital  principles 
underlying  religion.  His  church-going  had  not  given 
him  these,  and  life  so  far  had  brought  no  experience 
to  make  him  grip  the  unseen.  So  he  decided  there 
was  no  God. 

As  his  Ufe  became  more  solitary — his  brother  Charles, 
who  had  at  first  come  to  Yale  with  him,  secured  a 
position  as  secretary  to  Professor  Agassiz  at  Harvard, 
and  went  to  Boston — he  grew  more  bitter  and  cynical 
and  took  delight  in  studying  the  Bible  to  find  material 
to  support  his  views.  In  fact,  he  became  known  among 
his  classmates  as  an  atheist.  This  little  dip  into  atheism 
might  have  given  an  undesirable  twist  to  his  character, 


COLLEGE  DAYS  AT  YALE  105 

had  the  behefs  which  he  entertained  become  firmly 
rooted.  But  what  his  mind  was  actually,  if  uncon- 
sciously, seeking  was  truth.     Tennyson  tells  us: 

"There  is  more  faith  in  honest  doubt. 
Believe  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds. 

Russell's  search  for  truth  was  not  in  itself  evil;  evil 
did  not,  in  the  final  course,  come  from  it,  and  some 
good  did.  In  later  years,  the  experience  helped  him 
to  view  sympathetically  and  understanding^  the  same 
attitude  in  others.  It  did  even  more  than  this.  When 
he  entered  upon  his  ministry,  it  enabled  him  to  see  the 
necessity  of  making  the  truths  of  religion  overshadow 
its  forms  and  of  bringing  them  vitally  and  practically 
into  everyday  living. 

The  experience  left  temporarily  its  impress  upon  him. 
The  Russell  Conwell  of  Yale,  scoffing,  somewhat  cynical, 
was  different  from  the  ^'good-natured  boy,  always 
laughing,''  of  Wilbraham.  But  since  the  change  meant 
that  depths  of  his  nature  were  being  stirred  which  had 
not  yet  been  roused,  these  two  years  at  Yale  were 
not  without  profit  in  ways  other  than  in  the  education 
gained. 


CHAPTER  XII 

The  Outbreak  of  the  War 

A  Visit  to  New  York.  Doctor  Conwell  Gives  His 
First  Impressions  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher  and  Lin- 
coln.    Speeches  for  Enlistment. 

THE  bloody  conflict  of  the  sixties  broke  in  upon 
Russell  Conwell's  studies,  as  it  did  upon  the 
studies  of  many  another  young  man  at  that 
time.  As  strong  as  was  his  longing  for  an 
education,  the  call  to  arms  was  to  hun  a  higher  call 
than  the  one  to  serve  self.  It  was  a  call  to  help 
humanity;  to  stand — as  his  father  had  stood — for 
justice. 

When  Fort  Sumter  fell  and  the  first  blaze  of  war 
flamed  up,  memories  of  boyhood  came  with  a  rush — 
John  Brown  and  his  death;  the  cowering  slaves  he 
had  seen  in  the  woodshed;  the  discussions  he  had 
heard  in  the  home;  and  his  father's  fatigue,  perils 
and  fearlessness  in  the  cause  of  the  runaway  negroes. 

The  war  itself  would  probably  have  been  enough 
to  rouse  one  of  his  temperament;  but  with  such  asso- 
ciations and  memories,  the  call  to  arms  brought  a 
double  appeal.  And  he  had  a  still  more  recent  pic- 
ture to  stir  him  to  action.  Speaking  of  this  incident, 
which  occurred  but  a  short  time  before  the  war  broke 
out,  Doctor  Conwell  says: 

''In  1860,  when  my  elder  brother  and  myself  were 
teaching  school,  we  were  asked  to  go  to  Brooklyn  with 
the  body  of  a  lady  who  had  died  near  our  schools. 
We  went  to  Brooklyn  on   Saturday  and,   after  the 

(106) 


THE   OUTBREAK  OF  THE  WAR  107 

funeral,  our  friends  asked  us  to  stay  over  Sunday, 
saying  that  they  would  take  us  to  hear  Henry  Ward 
Beecher.  That  was  a  great  inducement,  because  my 
father  read  the  Tribune  every  Sunday  morning  after 
his  Bible,  and  sometimes  before  it,  and  what  Henry 
Ward  Beecher  said  my  father  thought  ^was  law  and 
Gospel/  Sunday  night  we  went  to  Plymouth  Church, 
and  there  was  a  large  crowd  an  hour  before  the  service; 
and  when  the  doors  were  opened  we  were  forced  up  the 
stairs  and  thrust  back  into  a  dirty  corner  where  we  could 
not  see.  Oh,  yes,  that  is  the  way  they  treat  the  boys — 
put  them  any  place — they're  only  boys!  I  remember 
the  disappointment  of  that  night  when  we  went  there 
more  to  see  than  to  hear.  But  finally  Mr.  Beecher 
appeared  and  announced  his  text,  I  remember  that 
I  did  not  pay  very  much  attention  to  it. 

''In  the  middle  of  the  sermon  Mr.  Beecher  began  in 
the  strangest  way  to  auction  off  a  woman,  'How  much 
am  I  offered  for  this  woman?'  he  yelled.  I  remember 
standing  up  on  tip-toes  to  look  for  that  figurative 
woman  who  was  being  sold.  After  he  had  finished, 
and  after  the  singing  of  the  hymn,  he  said,  'Brethren, 
be  seated,'  and  then  said,  'Sam,  come  here.'  A  col- 
ored boy  came  up  trembling  and  stood  beside  him. 
'This  boy  is  offered  for  seven  hundred  and  seventy 
dollars.  He  is  owned  in  South  Carolina  and  has  run 
away.  His  master  offers  him  to  me  for  seven  hundred 
and  seventy  dollars,  and  now,  if  the  officers  of  the 
church  will  pass  the  plates,  the  boy  shall  be  set  free.' 
When  the  plates  were  returned,  over  seventeen  hundred 
dollars  was  on  them! 

"I  shall  never  forget  that  scene.  The  awfulness  of 
selling  human  flesh  and  blood  came  over  me  over- 
poweringly.  I  understood,  better  than  I  ever  had 
before,   my  father's  determination   to  help  runaway 


108     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

slaves  and  John  Brown's  willingness  to  give  his  life, 
if  necessary,  to  free  them. 

^^The  night  after  we  went  to  hear  Henry  Ward 
Beecher's  great  sermon,  there  was  to  be  a  lecture  at 
Cooper  Institute,  a  parade  of  political  clubs,  and  some 
fireworks.  Our  friend  wanted  us  to  stay,  so,  as  country 
boys,  easily  influenced,  we  decided  that  the  schools  could 
wait  for  another  day,  and  we  remained  for  the  pro- 
cession. We  went  to  Cooper  Institute  and  there  was 
as  great  a  crowd  there  as  at  Beecher's  church.  We 
finally  got  on  the  stairway  and  far  in  the  rear  of  the 
great  crowd.  My  brother  stood  on  the  floor  and  I 
sat  on  the  ledge  of  the  high  window  sill,  with  my  feet 
on  his  shoulders.  And  he  held  me  that  way  w^hile  I 
told  him  down  there  what  was  going  on  over  yonder. 

^'The  first  man  that  came  on  the  platform  and  pre- 
sided at  that  meeting  was  William  Cullen  Bryant,  our 
dear  old  neighbor.  When  we  boys  in  a  strange  city 
saw  that  familiar  face,  oh,  the  emotions  that  arose  in 
our  hearts!  How  proud  we  were  that  he,  our  neighbor, 
was  presiding  on  that  occasion.  He  took  his  seat  on 
the  stage,  the  right  of  which  had  been  left  vacant  for 
some  one  yet  to  come.  Next  came  a  very  heavy  man 
who  was  immediately  followed  by  a  tall,  lean  man. 
Mr.  Bryant  arose  smiling  and  went  toward  him  bowing. 
He  was  an  awkward  man  and  all  about  me  people 
were  asking,  ^Who  is  that?'  But  no  one  seemed  to 
know.  I  asked  a  gentleman  who  that  man  was,  but 
he  said  he  did  not  know.  He  was  an  awkward 
specimen,  indeed.  One  leg  of  his  trousers  was  about 
two  inches  above  his  shoe;  his  hair  was  disheveled 
and  stuck  out  like  a  rooster's  feathers;  his  coat  was 
altogether  too  large  for  him  in  the  back;  his  arms 
were  much  longer  than  his  sleeves  and  with  his  legs 
twisted  around  the  rungs  of  the  chair,  he  was  a  perfect 
picture  of  embarrassment. 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  WAR  109 

''When  Mr.  Bryant  arose  to  introduce  the  speaker 
of  that  evening  the  latter  was  known  to  few,  seem- 
ingly, in  that  great  hall.  Mr.  Bryant  said,  'Gentle- 
men of  New  York,  you  have  your  favorite  son  in  Mr. 
Seward  and  if  he  were  to  be  President  of  the 
United  States,  every  one  of  us  would  be  proud  of  him.' 
Then  came  great  applause  and  Bryant  continued, 
'Ohio  has  her  favorite  son  in  Judge  Wade,  and  the 
nation  would  prosper  under  his  administration;  but, 
gentlemen  of  New  York,  it  is  a  great  honor  that  is 
conferred  upon  me  tonight,  for  I  can  introduce  to  you 
the  next  President  of  the  United  States — Abraham 
Lincoln.'  Then  through  that  great  audience  flew  the 
query  as  to  wholfi^  Abraham  Lincoln  was.  There  was 
but  weak  applause. 

"Mr.  Lincoln  had  in  his  hand  a  manuscript.  He 
had  written  it  with  great  care  and  exactness,  and  the 
speech  which  appears  in  his  official  biography  is  the 
one  that  he  wrote — not  the  one  that  he  dehvered,  as 
I  recall  it — and  it  is  fortunate  for  the  country  that  the 
newspapers  printed  the  one  that  he  had  written.  I 
think  the  one  that  he  wrote  had  been  set  up  in  type 
that  afternoon  from  his  manuscript,  and  consequently 
the  editors  of  the  newspapers  did  not  go  over  it  to  see 
whether  it  had  been  changed  or  not.  Lincoln  read 
three  pages  of  his  speech  and  had  gone  on  to  the  fourth 
when  he  lost  his  place,  and  began  to  tremble  and 
stanamer.  He  finally  turned  the  manuscript  over  two 
or  three  times,  threw  it  upon  the  table  and  'let  him- 
self go,'  as  they  say  in  the  West. 

"Then  the  stammering  man,  who  had  created  only 
silent  derision  up  to  that  point,  suddenly  flashed  out 
into  an  angel  of  oratory,  and  the  awkward  arms  and 
disheveled  hair  were  lost  sight  of  entirely  in  the  wonder- 
ful beauty  and  lofty  inspiration  of  that  magnificent 


110     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

address.  The  immense  audience  immediately  began 
to  follow  his  thought  and,  when  he  uttered  that  quota- 
tion from  Douglas,  'It  is  written  on  the  sky  of  America 
that  the  slaves  shall  some  day  be  free,'  the  applause 
was  so  great  that  the  building  trembled  and  I  felt  the 
windows  shake  behind  me.  I  thought  of  the  auction 
of  the  night  before.  Here,  too,  was  a  man  enlisted  in 
the  cause  of  freeing  the  slaves.  I  went  home  from 
that  visit  to  New  York  strangely  stirred." 

It  is  little  wonder  that,  with  these  memories  stirring 
him  and  his  disposition  always  to  put  into  instant 
action  his  desires,  Russell  iromediately  threw  aside  his 
books  and  enlisted  in  the  army.  But  he  was  only 
seventeen  and  when  his  father  learned  of  this  action, 
he  went  to  the  recruiting  officer  and  had  Russell's 
name  stricken  from  the  roll.  When  the  first  troops 
marched  away  young  Conwell,  much  to  his  disappoint- 
ment, was  not  among  them. 

But  he  did  not  lose  interest  in  the  stirring  events  of 
those  times  and,  although  he  continued  his  studies,  he 
spoke  whenever  called  upon  to  induce  men  to  enlist. 
So  eloquent  was  Russell  in  this  cause  that  he  became 
known  throughout  all  that  part  of  New  England.  He 
was  in  demand  everywhere  for  recruiting  purposes  and, 
when  it  was  known  that  ''the  boy"  was  going  to  speak, 
crowds  flocked  to  the  recruiting  hall  and  there  was 
sure  to  be  a  large  enlistment.  Writing  of  these  days, 
Mr.  Elizur  Hayden,  afterward  Russell  ConwelFs 
father-in-law,  says: 

"Mr.  Conwell  and  myself  attended  a  war  meeting 
last  night  and  he  made  a  speech  that  was  eulogized 
by  all.  A  young  lady  made  a  bouquet  for  the  occa- 
sion and,  at  the  close  of  the  meeting,  it  was  voted  to 
give  it  to  Russell.  So  the  lady  presented  it  to  him." 
Writing  later  to  his  daughter,  who  was  at  Wilbraham 
at  school,  Mr.  Hayden  says: 


THE  OUTBREAK  OF  THE  WAR  111 

^'They  had  a  war  meeting  at  the  Park  last  Saturday  i 
evening,  when  Conwell  and  Heath  entertained  the 
audience  for  some  time  by  their  eloquence  and  witti- 
cism. They  were  lionized  by  all.  The  ladies  especially 
were  all  in  love  with  R.  H.  A  man  who  was  a  witness 
said  that  when  he  took  the  stand  they  showered  bou- 
quets all  around  him.  At  this  demonstration  he  wilted 
like  a  cabbage  leaf  in  the  July  sun  and  sat  down.  Heath 
kept  up  the  excitement  in  his  off-hand  way  until  Russell 
came  to.  Then  he  got  up  and  made  some  apology  for 
thinking  to  entertain  such  a  large  assembly,  being 
nothing  but  a  boy  with  a  juvenile  mind,  addressing 
superior  and  gray-headed  veterans.  But  all  at  once 
the  fire  of  eloquence  began  to  burn  and  waxed  hotter 
and  hotter,  until  they  were  led  by  him  strangely,  so 
a  good  man  told  me  in  Westfield." 

Another  friend  of  this  period  says:  "His  youthful 
oratory  was  a  wonderful  thing  which  drew  crowds  of 
excited  listeners  wherever  he  went.  Towns  sent  for  him 
to  help  raise  their  quotas  of  soldiers ;  and  ranks  speedily 
filled  before  his  inspiring  and  patriotic  speeches.  In 
1862,  I  remember  a  scene  at  Whitman  Hall  in  West- 
field,  Massachusetts,  which  none  who  were  there  can 
forget.  Russell  had  delivered  two  addresses  there 
before.  On  that  night  there  were  two  addresses  before 
his,  by  prominent  lawyers,  but  there  was  evident 
impatience  to  hear  'the  boy.'  When  he  came  for- 
ward there  was  the  most  deafening  applause.  He 
really  seemed  inspired  by  miraculous  powers.  Every 
auditor  was  fascinated  and  held  closety  bound.  There 
was  for  a  time  breathless  suspense  and  then,  at  some 
telling  sentence,  the  whole  building  shook  with  wild 
applause.  At  its  close  a  shower  of  bouquets  from 
hundreds  of  ladies  carpeted  the  stage  in  a  moment, 
and  men  from  all  parts  of  the  hall  rushed  forward  to 
enlist." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

Going  to  War 

Enlisting,  Raising  Troops.  His  Election  as  Cap- 
tain and  Presentation  of  Sword.  Doctor  ConwelVs 
Letter  Home  Describing  His  First  Engagement. 

IN  the  excitement  of  those  days  naturally  Russell 
Conwell's  studies  suffered,  but  he  did  not  greatly 
care.     The  call  had  come  to  larger  living  than  the 

world  of  books  afforded,  though  at  one  time  that 
world  had  seemed  so  big.  The  news  of  battles;  of 
friends  and  neighbors  who  had  fallen  or  were  wounded; 
the  letters  from  the  front  that  classmates  received;  the 
addresses  made  at  war  meetings;  the  excitement  of 
the  rush  for  enlistment  that  followed — all  swept  his 
thoughts  to  wider  horizons  than  campus  or  classroom. 
The  achieving  of  purely  personal  ambitions  seemed 
small.  The  principles  at  stake  were  rousing  men  to 
heroic  sacrifices,  and  he  could  not  hold  his  mind  to  the 
message  of  a  text-book,  nor  occupy  his  hands  with 
catering  to  the  patrons  of  the  New  Haven  Hotel. 

It  is  little  wonder,  then,  that  when  Lincoln's  urgent 
call  came  in  1862  for  a  hundred  thousand  men,  Conwell 
could  not  longer  be  held  back.  The  father  yielded  to 
his  son's  insistent  plea,  and  the  boy  was  allowed  to 
enlist.  He  immediately  went  to  w^ork  raising  a  com- 
pany from  among  the  men  of  the  Berkshires.  He 
spoke  at  Huntington,  Blandford,  Worthington,  Russell 
and  other  nearby  towns,  and  there  was  a  rush  to  enlist 
under  him. 

The  company  became  known  as  the   ''Mountain 

(112) 


RUSSELL   H.    CONWELL   WHEN    ELECTED    CAPTAIN 

At  Nineteen  He  was  Placed  in  Command  of  Company  F. 
Forty-sixth  Massachusetts  Volunteers 


GOING  TO  WAR  113 

Boys/'  and  Russell  was  unanimously  elected  captain. 
He  was  but  nineteen — an  unusual  age  for  an  officer — 
but  a  committee  waited  upon  Governor  Andrews  and 
laid  the  case  before  him;  told  him  of  young  Con  well's 
success  as  a  recruiting  officer;  of  his  popularity  and 
the  sort  of  man  he  was;  and  the  Governor  gave  him 
his  commission.  The  news  was  received  with  satis- 
faction by  both  young  and  old.  The  younger  mem- 
bers of  the  company  were  openly  enthusiastic;  the 
older,  quietly  content.  The  latter  felt  a  sense  of 
guardianship  over  ^'the  boy"  that  added  to  the  pleas- 
ure of  serving  under  him.  It  was  an  enthusiastic  and 
united  company  that  marched  away  under  his  leader- 
ship.   In  regard  to  his  enlistment  Doctor  Con  well  says : 

^'My  brother  and  I  enlisted  as  private  soldiers  in 
the  Forty-sixth  Massachusetts  Volunteer  Mihtia;  and, 
although  my  brother  insisted  upon  continuing  as  a 
private  soldier,  when  I  was  offered  promotion  I  accepted 
with  pride  the  position  as  captain  of  Company  F,  when 
elected  as  its  leader  by  the  'Mountain  Boys,'  whose 
homes  were  in  the  Highlands  of  Hampshire  County. 
Although  I  was  personally  engaged  in  very  few  of  the 
important  battles  of  the  war  and  had  upon  the  whole 
a  very  easy  military  hfe,  yet  I  was  sustained  during 
the  privations  which  we  endured  and  the  lonely  mon- 
otony of  our  camp  life  by  the  frequent  messages  from 
my  home,  and  by  the  statement  in  my  sister's  letter 
that  father  mentioned  us  by  name  at  every  morning 
prayer.  Many  of  my  soldiers  were  pupils  in  the  school 
where  I  had  taught;  some  of  them  were  old  men  from 
my  own  neighborhood,  and  two  of  my  uncles  were 
among  the  number." 

Before  going  into  camp  at  Springfield,  a  banquet 
was  arranged  for  the  men  at  Springfield.  It  was  at 
this  banquet  that  Russell  Conwell  was  given  the  sword 


114     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

that  has  played  such  an  important  part  in  his  life.  It 
bore  this  inscription:  ^'Presented  to  Captain  Russell 
H.  Conwell  by  the  soldiers  of  Company  F,  Massa- 
chusetts Volunteer  Militia,  known  as  the  'Mountain 
Boys.'  Vera  Amidtia  est  sempiterna  (True  Friend- 
ship is  eternal).'' 

A  flagpole  had  been  erected  in  an  open  space  and 
around  this  staff  had  been  built  the  platfonn  for  the 
presentation  ceremony.  Ranged  about  were  the  men. 
Colonel  Shurtleff  made  the  speech  of  presentation. 
The  eloquent  reply  of  the  boy  captain  is  yet  remem- 
bered by  those  who  heard  it.  He  received  the  beauti- 
ful, glittering  weapon  in  silence.  Slowly  he  drew  the 
gleaming  steel  from  its  sheath  and  solemnly  held  it 
upward,  as  if  dedicating  it  to  heaven,  the  sunhght 
bathing  the  blade  with  blinding  flashes  of  light.  His 
eyes  were  fixed  upon  the  steel.  Silence  fell  upon  his 
waiting  comrades.  Thus,  for  a  few  moments  he  stood, 
and  then  he  spoke  to  the  sword: 

''He  called  up  the  shade  of  the  sword  of  that  mighty 
warrior  Joshua,"  wrote  one  who  had  heard  the  address, 
"which  purified  a  polluted  land  with  libations  of  blood, 
and  made  it  fit  for  the  heritage  of  God's  people;  the 
sword  of  David,  that  established  the  kingdom  of  Israel; 
the  sword  of  that  resistless  conqueror,  Alexander,  that 
pierced  the  heart  of  the  Orient;  the  Roman  short 
sword,  the  terrible  gladius,  that  carved  out  for  the 
Caesars  the  sovereignty  of  the  world;  the  sword  of 
Charlemagne,  writing  its  master's  glorious  deeds  in 
minghng  chapters  of  fable  and  history;  the  sword  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  smiting  the  battalions  of  the 
puissant  Wallenstein  with  defeat  and  overthrow,  even 
when  its  master  lay  dead  on  the  field  of  Lutzen;  the 
sword  of  Washington,  drawn  for  human  freedom  and 
sheathed  in  peace,  honor  and  victory. 


GOING  TO  WAR  115 

"Then  he  bade  the  sword  to  remember  all  it  had 
done  in  shaping  the  destinies  of  men  and  nations;  how 
it  had  written  on  the  tablets  of  history  in  letters  red 
and  lurid,  the  drama  of  the  ages.  Closing,  he  called 
upon  it  now  in  the  battles  for  the  Union  to  strike  hard 
and  strike  home  for  freedom,  for  justice,  in  the  name 
of  God  and  Right;  to  fail  not  in  the  work  to  which 
it  was  called  until  every  shackle  in  the  land  was  broken, 
every  bondman  free  and  every  foul  stain  of  dishonor 
cleaned  from  the  flag." 

Before  leaving  for  the  front  Russell's  company  went 
into  camp  for  about  six  weeks  near  Springfield.  It 
was  fall  and  the  weather  began  to  get  cold.  There 
were  heavy  autumn  rains  and  enow  flurries,  and  the 
actuaUties  of  war  began  to  come  home  to  the  men. 
It  was  ConwelFs  first  experience  of  feeling,  in  a  large 
sense,  responsibihty  for  others.  He  realized  it  now 
overpoweringly.  These  men  had  enlisted  to  a  great 
extent  through  his  influence.  They  had  appointed 
him  as  their  leader  and  he  felt  accountable  for  them. 
Up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  had  been  concerned, 
quite  naturally,  with  self;  with  getting  an  education 
and  with  what  he  was  going  to  do  with  his  life.  But 
these  need  experiences  and  responsibilities  began  to 
turn  him  from  looking  inward  to  looking  outward. 

This  larger  comprehension  of  hfe  was  not  a  matter 
of  mere  speculation  or  sensation.  It  took  a  practical 
form.  Russell  Conwell  has  ever  been  a  practical  man. 
In  his  ministry,  he  has  followed  up  his  preaching  by 
work.  And  in  these  early  days,  as  he  went  among  the 
men,  he  responded  in  practical  ways  to  their  needs. 
To  an  ill-clad  man  shivering  with  cold,  he  gave  his  own 
overcoat.  To  the  soldier  with  no  money  to  buy  medi- 
cines, he  gave  his  own  pay.  In  hundreds  of  other 
ways  Conwell  showed  that  he  had  been  aroused  from 
his  theretofore  self-centered  life. 


116     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

Dr.  Richard  Cabot  says  in  ''What  Men  Live  By" 
that  the  sense  of  somebody's  need  is  the  most  power- 
ful motive  in  the  world.  This  sense  of  need  and  also 
of  responsibility  pressed  heavily  upon  Conwell  at  this 
time  and  rapidly  changed  him  from  a  boy  to  a  man. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  that  desire  to  serve  others 
which  has  been  such  a  marked  characteristic  of  his 
work. 

At  last  the  order  came  to  leave  for  the  front.  Cap- 
tain ConwelFs  company  was  ordered  to  North  Carolina, 
and  the  men  sailed  from  Boston,  on  the  steamers 
''Merrimac"  and  ''Mississippi,''  November  5, 1862.  A 
furious  gale  was  blowing  and,  after  battling  down  the 
harbor  for  a  short  distance,  the  boats  were  compelled 
to  put  back  and  anchor  for  several  days.  Captain 
Conwell  took  his  men  ashore  and  they  slept  in  Fanueil 
Hall  until  the  boats  again  sailed. 

That  Boston  was  well  aware  of  their  presence,  his- 
tory avers.  The  captain  was  young  and  full  of  high 
spirits,  and  he  believed  in  keeping  up  the  men's  spirits. 
The  pranks  of  the  "Mountain  Boys"  were  not  soon 
forgotten,  though  Boston  felt  so  kindly  toward  all 
soldiers  that  it  only  laughed  over  the  escapades  of 
these  new  recruits.  But  there  was  no  homesickness, 
and  when  they  again  embarked  it  was  with  high  spirits 
for  the  adventure  ahead. 

The  trip  south  was  uneventful.  The  soldiers  landed 
at  Newbern,  threw  up  breastworks,  dug  trenches  and 
made  themselves  familiar  with  drills  and  garrison 
duties.  Four  or  five  weeks  passed  before  they  had 
their  first  experience  of  battle,  and  then  Company  F 
was  not  in  the  severest  part  of  it.  The  chief  work  of 
the  "Mountain  Boys"  in  this  encounter  was  to  carry 
off  the  wounded  and  bury  the  dead. 

But  shortly  afterward  they  were  engaged  in  severe 


GOING  TO   WAR  117 

fighting  which  lasted  for  several  days.  The  company 
was  part  of  the  force  sent  to  Goldsboro  to  destroy  the 
railroad  which  carried  provisions  to  General  Lee's 
army  in  Virginia.  Captain  Conwell  in  a  letter  home 
gave  a  graphic  description  of  the  experience  of  his 
men  and  himself.    He  wrote: 

"I  have  been  gone  from  camp  two  weeks,  and  dur- 
ing that  time  I  have  seen  some  of  the  most  horrible 
sights.  We  started  one  week  ago  last  Thm-sday  from 
om*  camp  here,  taking  with  us  nothing  but  our  blankets 
and  a  pair  of  socks,  and  took  up  om'  line  of  march 
towards  Kingston.  Oh,  it  was  a  splendid  sight  to  see 
that  great  body  of  men  as  it  started  toward  the  heart 
of  North  Carolina.  In  that  vast  army  might  be  found 
the  Third  Brigade,  and  in  that  brigade  could  have 
been  found  Company  F,  and  of  course  in  that  was  your 
humble  servant. 

''I  cannot  wonder  now  that  McClellan  did  not  move 
faster,  for  it  took  us  until  noon  of  the  first  day  to  go 
two  miles.  The  heavy  artillery  broke  almost  every 
bridge  and  sunk  in  every  mud-hole,  taking  from  half 
an  hour  to  two  hours  to  extricate  it.  We  made  more 
headway  in  the  afternoon  and,  by  traveling  until  mid- 
night, we  arrived  tired  and  hungry  in  an  open  field  about 
fifteen  miles  out,  where,  having  eaten  our  hard  bread, 
we  laid  our  weary  bones  on  that  hard,  bare  ground  to 
rest. 

"And  thus  passed  the  second  day  and  night!  But 
the  third  day  we  'saw  another  sight.'  About  ten 
o'clock  in  the  forenoon  the  sound  of  terrific  cannonad- 
ing greeted  our  sensitive  ears  and,  as  we  neared  the 
scene  of  conflict,  our  hearts  beat  hard  and  our  breath 
came  short  because  of  the  terrible  roar  of  the  cannon, 
and  the  shouts  of  men,  and  cracking  of  muskets.  The 
smoke  curled  up  toward  the  heavens  in  little  wreaths 


118     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

and,  far  above  the  heads  of  the  contending  forces, 
formed  a  dark  cloud  which  hung  over  the  place  like 
a  pall  over  a  bier. 

''When  we  arrived  at  the  scene  of  action,  the  artil- 
lery had  driven  the  rebels  from  the  edge  of  the  woods 
where  they  had  first  entrenched  themselves  and  they 
were  then  fighting  in  an  open  field  beyond.  Oh,  it 
was  a  terrible  sight  to  see  men's  legs,  arms  and  heads 
shot  away,  scattering  the  blood  about  them  like  a 
shower;  and  to  hear  the  whistle  of  thousands  of  bullets 
as  they  spread  their  message  of  death,  while  the  shell's 
with  a  hellish  scream,  would  burst  over  and  among  us, 
sending  consternation  and  death  into  our  ranks!  But 
this  state  of  things  did  not  last  long  ere  the  enemy 
fled,  leaving  our  shouting,  victorious  army  in  posses- 
sion of  the  entire  field. 

''Soon  we  commenced  to  follow  up  their  retreat. 
And,  on  a  'double-quick,'  our  army  of  27,000  ran  along 
the  road  in  hot  pursuit  of  the  flying  foe.  We  chased 
them  until  we  crossed  the  Neuse  River  into  Kingston 
and  there  for  a  moment  we  were  shocked  and  halted; 
for  the  rebels  had  planted  a  battery  of  six  guns  on  the 
other  side  of  the  river  to  keep  us  back  while  one  of  their 
number  fired  the  bridge.  As  we — the  Ninth  New 
Jersey  was  ahead — turned  a  curve  in  the  road  close  by 
the  bridge,  an  awful  shower  of  grape  and  canister  met 
the  rebels,  mowing  them  down  and  tearing  them  into 
pieces.  The  fence  beside  the  road  was  cut  into  kindling 
wood,  and  for  six  rods  no  piece  could  be  found  more 
than  six  inches  long.  But  the  men,  'Oh,  where  were 
they?'  Scattered,  shattered  and  torn,  they  lay  about 
the  fields  a  piece  in  a  place. 

"I  shall  not  describe  that  horrid  scene  lest  it  make 
your  blood  run  cold.  But  the  end  was  not  yet.  Just 
before  the  volley  came,  I  saw  a  man  on  the  bridge 


GOING  TO   WAR  119 

with  two  pails  in  his  hands — one  of  turpentine  and  one 
of  tar — setting  the  bridge  on  fire.  But  after  our 
artillery  had  commenced  to  play  on  them  and  they  had 
fled,  I  could  not  find  him.  I  supposed  he  had  fled  with 
the  rest  and  taken  his  combustible  materials  with  him; 
but  after  we  had  succeeded  in  putting  out  the  fire  and 
our  army  commenced  to  cross  the  bridge,  I  discovered 
the  incendiary.  Oh,  it  was  a  sight  that  would  freeze 
the  blood!  For  there — on  the  bank  of  the  river,  with 
one  leg  shot  off,  and  all  covered  with  tar  and  turpentine 
which  had  burned  and  fried  out  his  flesh — lay  the 
unfortunate  rebel  writhing  in  terrible  agony.  But 
his  tide  of  life  soon  ceased  to  flow.  And  when  I  passed 
over  the  bridge  the  next  morning  nothing  but  a  black 
coal,  which  crumbled  at  every  jar,  was  left  to  tell  where 
the  once  human  form  had  been. 

''But  I  am  making  my  story  too  long,  so  will  cut  it 
short  by  saying  that  when  I  come  home — if  I  ever 
do — I  will  tell  you  of  our  leaving  Kingston  and  resum- 
ing our  march  up  the  river;  of  our  flight  at  Whitehall, 
and  of  how  the  General  called  for  volunteers  to  go  and 
clean  out  the  rebels  from  a  thick  wood  where  they 
were  posted  in  trees  and  behind  stumps  kiUing  us  off 
as  we  passed;  and  how  forty-three  of  my  company 
volunteered  to  go  and  went,  meeting  with  many  narrow 
escapes  as  bullets  sizzed  through  their  caps  and  clothes. 
But  much  to  my  satisfaction  not  a  man  was  lost.  And 
then  I  will  tell  you  how  we  arrived  at  the  railroad  near 
Waynesborough,  and  how  the  fierce  cannonading  made 
the  earth  tremble,  while  about  our  heads  the  screech- 
ing shells  whirled  and  burst,  making  it  a  very  uncom- 
fortable situation  to  be  in;  how  the  rebels  charged 
our  batteries  and,  literally  torn  to  pieces,  retreated 
under  cover  of  the  woods;  how  we  tore  up  railroads 
for  miles  and  burned  a  bridge,  that  being  the  object 


120     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

for  which  we  had  started;  how,  as  we  continued  on 
our  march  back,  the  rebels  raised  the  river  across 
which  we  had  to  go,  to  prevent  us  from  crossing  and, 
as  a  consequence,  we  had  to  swim. 

^'And  I  shall  also  tell  you  of  our  weary  and  tiresome 
march  back,  while  beside  the  road  lay  the  rebels  which 
we  had  killed;  ^unwept,  uncoffined,  and  unrecognized;' 
and  how  we  arrived  here  weak  and  footsore,  hungry 
and  sleepy,  from  our  fatiguing  march.  Yes,  all  this 
and  more  I  will  tell  you  when  I  come,  if  I  am  not 
mistaken  about  the  preparations  which  are  going  on 
for  another  expedition.  Yet  such  is  war,  and  we,  as 
patriots,  must  submit  to  it.  But,  oh,  it  is  terrible  to 
see  young  men  with  their  arms  shot  off!  For  I  think 
of  friends  at  home  who  perchance  will  grow  cold  and 
austere  when  these  young  men  return  as  cripples  to 
their  homes.  Well,  we  are  now  recovering  from  the 
fatiguing  effects  of  the  march  and  soon  will  be  ready 
for  another." 

Of  this  engagement  one  of  the  men  wrote,  "We 
had  to  struggle  back  to  camp  through  a  burning  forest. 
Hundreds  of  acres  were  on  fire.  The  ground  was  a 
sheet  of  flames  from  the  dry  leaves  and  brush  and  pine 
needles  that  had  lain  there  for  years.  Trees  were 
falling  everywhere  and  the  flames  shot  up  the  resinous 
pine  like  a  chain  of  lightning.  We  lost  the  wagons 
and  every  man  had  practically  to  run  for  his  life.  We 
could  scarcely  see  for  the  smoke.  It  was  a  terrible 
experience." 

It  was  on  this  trip,  also,  that  the  men  went  through 
what  became  known  as  the  ''Gum  Swamp  experience." 
It  was  an  experience  that  tested  the  mettle  of  the  men 
and  the  resources  of  the  young  captain,  and  was  one 
which  none  of  the  survivors  ever  forgot.  On  their 
return  to  Newbern,  the  Confederates  hung  on  their 


GOING  TO   WAR  121 

rear,  riddling  their  ranks  with  shot  and  shell.  Suffer- 
ing, maddened,  with  no  way  to  turn  and  fight,  for  the 
enemy  kept  themselves  well  hidden;  with  no  way  of 
escape  ahead  if  they  remained  on  the  road,  they  plunged 
into  the  swamp  that  swept  up  black  and  dismal  to  the 
very  edge  of  the  highway.  The  Confederate  prisoners 
with  them  warned  them  of  their  danger;  but  the  men 
were  not  to  be  stayed  when  a  deadly  rain  of  the  enemy's 
balls  was  thinning  their  ranks  every  minute.  The 
swamp  was  a  black  ooze  with  water  up  to  their  waists 
— a  tangle  of  grass,  reeds,  cypress  trees  and  bushes. 

Loaded  down  with  their  heavy  clothing  and  their 
army  accoutrements,  the  men  one  after  another  sank 
from  sheer  exhaustion.  No  man  could  succor  his 
brother.  The  only  thing  anyone  could  do  was  drag 
himself  through  the  mire  that  sucked  him  down.  But 
Captain  Conwell  would  not  desert  a  man.  He  could 
not  see  his  comrades  left  to  die  before  his  very  eyes — 
those  men  who  came  from  his  own  mountain  town; 
his  own  boy  friends — the  ones  who  had  enlisted  under 
him;  marched  and  drilled  with  him.  He  worked 
indefatigably;  encouraging,  helping  and  carrying  some 
of  the  more  exhausted.  A  wet,  straggling  remnanty 
reached  Newbern.  Even  then,  when  Captain  Conwell 
found  that  two  of  his  own  company  were  missing,  he 
plunged  back  into  the  swamp  to  rescue  them.  Hours 
passed  and,  just  as  a  relief  expedition  was  starting  out 
to  search  for  him,  he  came  back,  his  hat  gone,  his  uni- 
form torn  into  rags,  but  with  one  of  the  men  with  him 
and  the  other  left  on  a  fallen  tree  with  a  path  blazed 
to  lead  the  rescuers  to  him. 

But  the  days  were  not  all  filled  with  fighting.  There 
was  much  garrison  duty.  There  were  long  days  in 
which  there  was  little  to  do  but  drill  and  perform 
guard  dutj.     DriUing,  however,  under  Captain  Con- 


122     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Welles  direction  was  one  of  the  most  pleasant  parts  of 
the  day's  work.  He  felt  his  responsibiUty  and  threw 
himseK  into  the  work  with  an  earnestness  that  infected 
his  men.  They  preferred  to  drill  with  him  two  hours 
rather  than  with  any  other  officer  a  half  hour.  They 
not  only  caught  the  contagion  of  his  enthusiasm,  but 
he  changed  the  dull,  monotonous  drudgery  of  drilling 
into  real,  fascinating  work  by  marching  the  men  into 
seemingly  hopeless  situations  and  then;  in  some 
unexpected  and  surprising  way,  extricating  them. 

''One  of  the  men  of  Captain  Conwell's  company 
tells  how  he  marched  them  into  a  narrow  place  and 
successfully  maneuvered  them  out  again.  The  next 
day  he  sent  another  officer  to  drill  them.  The  man 
marched  them  into  the  same  place,  thinking  he  could 
demonstrate  a  new  way  out.  But  he  was  unable  to 
extricate  the  men  at  all,  and  finally  was  compelled  to 
tell  them,  'You'll  have  to  turn  around  and  get  out  the 
way  you  did  yesterday.'  "  Another  man  of  the  com- 
pany tells  how  Captain  Conwell  never  spared  himself 
any  of  the  unpleasant  phases  of  the  work.    Ho  says: 

''One  day  the  Colonel,  while  drilling  the  regiment, 
noticed  that  many  of  the  men  of  Company  F  marched 
far  out  of  their  places  to  avoid  a  mud-hole  in  the  road. 
He  marched  and  countermarched  over  the  same  ground 
to  compel  the  men  to  keep  their  rank  and  file  regardless 
of  the  mud.  Captain  Conwell  saw  his  object  and 
plunged  into  the  mire.  The  men  followed  and  were 
thus  saved  the  reprimand  which  threatened." 

In  these  long,  dull  days  of  garrison  duty  Captain 
Conwell  also  did  what  he  could  to  keep  up  the  spirits 
of  his  men.  ''  He  was  always  making  stump  speeches," 
said  one  of  them.  Those  who  know  Doctor  Conwell's 
ability  as  a  speaker  can  readily  see  how  he  could 
enliven  these  dull  days  in  this  way.     He  organized  a 


GOING  TO   WAR  123 

minstrel  show.  With  his  pay  he  bought  a  melodeon, 
had  it  shipped  from  New  York  to  camp,  and  many 
were  the  '*  sings  ^'  he  and  his  men  had  around  it.  One 
of  the  men  in  a  letter  home  speaks  of  the  brass  bands 
some  of  the  regiment  had,  and  so,  he  writes,  ''we  were 
not  shut  out  of  the  privilege  of  hearing  good  music  once 
in  a  while. '^  These  ''Mountain  Boys"  never  lost  their 
love  of  music  and  with  none  was  it  keener  than  with 
their  leader.  In  another  letter  a  man  writes:  "The 
captain  has  been  in  his  tent  singing."  And  another 
tells  how  the  war  songs  were  sent  them  as  soon  as 
published,  and  how  eagerly  the  men  would  learn  them 
as  soon  as  they  arrived. 

All  this  seeming  frivoHty  had  a  purpose.  Captain 
Conwell  knew  that  the  singing,  the  minstrel  shows, 
and  the  various  other  amusements  which  he  devised 
kept  the  men  during  their  long  dull  garrison  days  from 
becoming  homesick  and  discontented.  Hence  he 
planned  these  entertainments  and  various  diversions 
so  that  in  Company  F  there  might  always  be  a  feeling 
of  expectancy — a  sense  of  something  about  to  be  done. 
"He  was  a  good  captain  and  a  good  officer,"  said  one 
of  his  men.  "Everybody  liked  him.  He  was  always 
doing  something  for  us,  and  he  would  spend  his  last 
cent  for  the  men." 

Although  he  did  all  he  could  to  keep  his  men  amused 
and  contented,  for  himself  there  w^as  serious  work. 
Whenever  he  had  a  spare  minute  he  devoted  it  to 
study.  Now  that  he  was  in  the  midst  of  the  struggle 
and  where  he  could  at  a  moment's  notice  serve  his 
country,  he  was  able  to  study  with  a  clearer  mind  than 
he  could  at  Yale  with  classrooms  and  professors  about 
him  but  his  heart  at  the  front.  During  the  term  of 
his  first  enlistment  he  committed  to  memory  the  whole 
of  Blackstone  and  the  process  of  visuahzing  which  he 


124     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

had  learned  in  school  was  now  of  great  help  to  him. 
He  could,  by  means  of  this  visual  memory,  see  the 
printed  page  as  if  it  were  before  him,  and  study  it  at 
times  when  it  was  impossible  to  have  books  with  him. 

Captain  Conwell  not  only  in  this  way  went  on  with 
the  studies  he  had  dropped  at  Yale,  but  he  was  alert 
to  acquire  any  helpful  books  that  he  could  find  among 
the  people  with  whom  he  was  now  thrown.  Indeed, 
the  passion  for  books  which  caused  him  to  keep  fifteen 
to  twenty  volumes  from  the  library  in  his  room  at 
Wilbraham  still  burned  within  him.  In  a  letter  home 
he  tells  of  an  effort  to  buy  some  books  from  a  South- 
erner who  had  been  ruined  by  the  war.  He  had  heard 
that  the  man  had  some  books  for  sale  and  went  to  see 
him: 

*^I  stated  my  business  and  he  seemed  very  willing 
to  sell  me  the  book  I  wanted,'^  he  wrote,  *'so  I  paid 
him  two  dollars  and  took  the  book  back  with  me.  And 
I  had  a  good  long  chat  with  the  family,  who  told  me 
all  about  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion.  The  old 
man  said  he  told  the  '  boys'  when  they  seceded  that  he 
had  lived  in  the  old  Union  too  long  to  believe  that  they 
could  break  it  up.  But  the  old  man  is  now  very  poor, 
for  a  blasting  army  had  swept  over  his  land  and  taken 
almost  everything  he  possessed.  But  as  it  was  grow- 
ing late,  I  took  my  leave  much  pleased  with  my  visit 
and  with  my  book. 

(Signed)     Captain  R.  H.  Conwell, 
Company  F,  46  Regiment,  M.  V.  M." 
Nondum  Murtuus. 
(Not  dead  yet.) 


CHAPTER  XIV 

The  Second  Enlistment 

Captain  of  Company  D.  Accompanied  by  John 
Ring.  In  Charge  of  Newport  Barracks.  Attack 
of  Pickett's  Corps.  Defeat  of  ConwelVs  Men. 
Death  of  John  Ring.  Appointment  on  General 
Mcpherson's  Staff.  Wounded  at  Kenesaw  Mountain. 
Conversion. 

WHEN  the  term  of  enlistment  of  Company  F's 
men  expired  Governor  Andrews  of  Massa- 
chusetts wrote  Captain  Conwell  asking  him 
if  he  would  not  raise  another  regiment. 
This  he  did.  He  spoke  more  widely  throughout  the 
state  than  previously  and,  as  before,  men  flocked  to 
enlist.  The  regiment  thus  recruited  was  the  Second 
Massachusetts  Regiment  of  Heavy  Artillery,  and  he 
was  made  captain  of  Company  D.  The  regiment 
went  into  camp  at  Readville  and  later  sailed  from 
Boston  for  Newbern,  North  Carolina,  the  same  place 
to  which  Captain  Conwell  and  the  men  of  the  first 
enlistment  had  been  assigned. 

It  was  with  this  company  that  John  Ring  went  in 
care  of  Captain  Conwell.  He  was  a  boy  of  sixteen  or 
seventeen,  the  son  of  a  neighbor — a  "slim,  hand- 
some youth,  quiet  but  very  popular,  idolizing  Conwell 
and  always  with  him,"  is  the  description  given  by  his 
fellow  soldiers. 

It  was  only  upon  one  question  of  reading  his 
Bible  that  he  refused  to  obey  Captain  Conwell.  It 
was  a  source  of  regret  to  the  boy  that  he  felt  that  he 

(125) 


126     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

must  disobey,  and  a  deeper  disappointment  that  the 
man  whom  he  so  admired  disbeheved  in  the  Bible.  But 
though  he  disobeyed  in  this  instance,  he  did  not  swerve 
in  loyalty  in  other  matters.  He  shared  Conwell's  tent, 
waited  upon  him,  nursed  him  when  sick  and  devoted 
himself  wholly  to  him. 

When  the  troops  reached  Newbern,  Captain  Con- 
well  and  his  men  were  put  in  charge  of  a  fort  at  New- 
port, outside  of  Newbern  and  near  Fort  Macon.  They 
were  supported  by  the  Ninth  Vermont  Infantry,  whose 
duty  it  was  to  protect  the  command  from  side  attacks. 

The  control  of  this  part  of  the  Atlantic  coast  was 
important  to  both  armies.  It  was  a  convenient  point  for 
the  landing  of  supplies,  both  munitions  and  food.  And, 
though  the  campaigns  elsewhere  were  more  spectacular 
and  figured  more  prominently  in  history,  there  was  a 
constant  struggle  here  between  the  troops  of  both  sides 
for  control.  The  pickets  of  the  two  forces  were  but  a 
few  rods  apart  and  the  firing  and  skirmishes  were 
continuous.  Although  no  great  battles  were  fought, 
as  compared  with  some  of  the  big  battles  of  the  war, 
constant  alertness  was  required  on  the  part  of  the 
Northern  men  not  to  be  surprised  and  overpowered 
by  the  watchful  enemy. 

This  necessary  vigilance  brought  Captain  Conwell 
into  many  dangers.  While  making  the  rounds  one 
night  with  an  orderly,  he  was  attacked  and  fired  upon 
by  a  picket  of  the  other  side.  In  the  struggle  he  was 
knocked  insensible.  Fortunately  the  shot  fired  at  him 
struck  his  watch  and  glanced  aside.  The  dent  in  the 
timepiece  where  the  bullet  hit  showed  what  a  narrow 
escape  he  had. 

At  another  time,  with  this  same  orderly  and  eighteen 
or  twenty  of  men,  he  was  foraging  for  horse  feed,  when 
the  httle  body  of  Northern  men  came  unexpectedly 


THE   SECOND   ENLISTMENT  127 

upon  a  company  of  Confederates  concealed  in  the  grass 
and  behind  trees.  Captain  Conwell  immediately 
ordered  his  men  to  lie  down;  but  seeing  a  Confederate 
behind  a  large  pine  tree,  he  went  forward  to  capture 
him.  It  was  a  big  tree  and  the  two  men  could  not  see 
each  other  around  it;  but  they  reached  around  as  far 
as  they  could  and  shot  at  each  other.  The  Con- 
federate, however,  was  more  experienced  in  the  shoot- 
ing of  men  than  Captain  Conwell  and  reserved  his 
last  bullet  until  he  knew  that  Captain  Con  well's  ammu- 
nition was  gone.  Then  he  came  boldly  out  to  shoot 
Conwell. 

Captain  ConwelFs  men,  who  had  been  watching  the 
firing,  when  they  saw  their  officer's  peril,  rose  as  one 
man  and  came  after  the  Confederate.  He  fired  at 
Conwell,  hitting  him  in  the  shoulder,  and  then  turned 
and  ran.  But  he  stumbled,  fell  and  was  captured. 
His  men  fled  when  they  saw  him  taken  prisoner. 
Captain  Conwell's  wound  at  the  time  did  not  seem 
serious.  The  bullet  was  not  even  extracted,  but  in 
later  years  this  oversight  nearly  cost  him  his  life.  For 
the  bullet,  instead  of  being  lead,  as  is  customary,  was 
brass,  the  Confederates  being  compelled  to  melt  brass 
rods  to  secure  metal  for  their  bullets.  The  brass  cor- 
roded and  ate  into  his  lungs,  causing  hemorrhages  that 
for  months  puzzled  physicians  and  brought  him  to 
death's  door. 

In  later  years  Doctor  Conwell  met  the  Confederate 
who  had  shot  him  and  they  became  warm  friends. 
^'It  goes  to  show,"  said  Doctor  Conwell,  in  speaking 
of  their  present  good  feeling  towards  each  other,  "how 
war  will  inflame  men's  hearts  with  the  spirit  of  murder, 
even  when  there  is  no  basic  reason  for  it.  If  men  were 
not  stirred  up  by  spasmodic  eruptions  of  hate  for  each 
other,  the  sense  of  brotherhood  would  quickly  develop. 
It  is  in  most  men  waiting  to  be  developed." 


128     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

In  one  of  these  raids  for  horse  feed  he  and  his  men 
visited  a  nearby  farmhouse.  The  men  always  had 
orders  not  to  force  their  way  into  the  homes  of  the 
Southerners,  but  merely  to  take  what  they  might  need 
for  their  horses.  On  this  occasion  Captain  Conwell 
went  to  the  house  to  state  his  mission  and,  contrary  to 
the  usual  custom,  he  was  pleasantly  received.  In 
fact,  the  prople  professed  to  be  quite  friendly  and  later 
sent  to  him  in  camp  some  homemade  persimmon  beer. 
Captain  Conwell  never  suspected  treachery  and  grate- 
fully accepted  the  seeming  kindness;  but  the  beer  was 
poisoned  and  made  him  seriously  ill.  At  one  time  his 
life  was  despaired  of.  It  was  weeks  before  he  was  able 
to  be  about;  and  years  passed  before  his  system  was 
entirely  free  of  the  poison  and  its  effects.  During  his 
entire  illness  in  camp  he  was  faithfully  nursed  by 
John  Ring. 

While  Captain  Conwell  was  ill  his  men's  pay  fell  in 
arrears,  and  when  he  was  able  again  to  be  about  he  found 
much  dissatisfaction  and  discontent  because  they  had 
not  been  paid.  The  men  needed  their  money  to  send 
home,  and  to  buy  clothing  and  other  necessities  for 
themselves.  He  wrote  the  paymaster  at  Newbern 
about  the  matter  and  received  the  reply  that  if  he 
would  come  to  Newbern  with  the  payroll,  he  would  be 
given  the  money  to  pay  his  men. 

He  did  not  realize  that  it  was  necessary  to  get  a 
leave  of  absence,  as  the  officers  had  frequently  gone 
between  Newport  and  Newbern  without  a  special 
permit,  so  Captain  Conwell  took  his  orderly  and 
started.  He  reached  Newbern  that  night;  but  as  he 
rode  into  the  little  town  where  he  had  passed  his  first 
term  of  enhstment,  he  heard  news  that  appalled 
him.  The  fort  under  his  charge  at  Newport  had  been 
attacked  by  Pickett's  Corps — the  same  corps  that 


THE  SECOND  ENLISTMENT  129 

made  the  famous  charge  at  Gettsyburg — his  men  had 
been  defeated,  the  fort  had  been  abandoned,  and  the 
Confederates  were  victorious. 

He  immediately  turned  and  galloped  back  towards 
the  fort.  Soldiers  straggling  by  told  him  that  he 
could  not  get  through.  Still  he  kept  on,  determined  to 
reach  Newport.  Farther  on  he  found  the  woods  on 
fire,  and  the  flames  were  sweeping  in  all  directions.  The 
heat  was  overpowering  and  the  smoke  blinding.  He 
turned  aside,  hoping  by  a  detour  to  reach  his  men ;  but 
other  stragglers  told  him  the  country  was  full  of  the 
enemy  and  that  an  attempt  to  return  would  only  mean 
capture. 

He  then  tried  to  descend  the  Neuse  River  by  boat, 
hoping  to  reach  the  vicinity  of  the  fort  in  this  way. 
But  the  posts  all  along  the  river  had  been  captured  by 
Confederates.  After  two  days  of  ceaseless  endeavor 
he  reluctantly  gave  up  and  went  back  to  Newbern. 
But  when  he  reached  this  little  town  again,  he  heard, 
the  most  crushing  news  of  all — John  Ring  had  lost  his^ 
life  in  an  effort  to  save  the  gold-sheathed  sword  from 
falling  into  Confederate  hands. 

As  the  men  told  Captain  Conwell  of  the  boy's 
struggle  across  the  burning  bridge;  of  the  humane  order 
of  the  Confederate  officer  to  ^' Cease  firing;"  of  the 
burned,  blistered  body  that  dropped  into  the  out- 
stretched arms  of  his  comrades ;  of  his  last  words  in  the 
hospital,  ^'Tell  the  Captain  I  saved  his  sword,"  he  was 
prostrated  with  grief  and  horror.  This  tragedy, 
coupled  with  the  defeat  of  his  men,  the  loss  of  the  fort, 
his  own  over-exertions  in  trying  to  return,  brought  on 
an  attack  of  fever.  For  days  he  tossed  in  delirium, 
endeavoring  to  rescue  John  Ring  from  the  burning 
bridge,  or  to  get  back  through  fire  and  forest  to  his  men. 

Other    troubles    followed   fast.     The    commanding 


130    RUSSELL  H.   CONWELL  AND   HIS  WORK 

general  at  Newbern,  was  so  severely  criticised  by 
Major-General  Butler  for  the  loss  of  the  fort,  that  he 
looked  about  him  for  some  one  upon  whom  to  lay  the 
blame.  He  discovered  that  Captain  Conwell,  the  officer 
in  charge  at  Newport,  was  absent  without  leave,  and 
forthwith  ordered  a  court-martial. 

Captain  Conwell  did  not  realize  the  full  significance 
of  this.  He  was  still  weak  from  his  illness,  and  his 
thoughts  were  so  filled  with  the  death  of  John  Ring 
that  he  gave  little  heed  to  other  matters.  He  paid  no 
attention  to  the  summons.  His  record,  he  felt  sure, 
would  settle  any  question  as  to  his  bravery.  He  knew 
that  his  men  believed  in  him,  and  he  thought  the  mat- 
ter of  getting  a  regular  leave  of  absence  a  mere  tech- 
nicality that  would  have  little  weight  in  comparison 
with  his  actual  service.  So  he  did  nothing  whatever  to 
defend  himself  before  the  court.  He  did  not  even 
secure  anyone  to  appear  for  him.  Someone  who  knew 
but  little  of  the  facts  was  appointed  to  be  his  counsel 
by  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  court-martial. 

In  addition,  a  member  of  the  court-martial  was  the 
brother  of  a  man  who  had  wanted  the  captaincy  of 
Company  D  and  bitterly  resented  the  appointment  of 
Captain  Conwell.  Under  such  conditions  it  was  little 
wonder  the  court-martial  went  against  him.  The  verdict 
was  discharge  from  the  service  but  without  loss  of  pay. 
Even  then  he  did  not  realize  all  that  this  meant,  for 
he  was  but  a  boy,  not  yet  of  age,  until  the  chaplain  of 
the  regiment  came  to  him  and  told  him  how  unjust  the 
decision  was;  how  foolish  he  had  been  not  to  defend 
himself;  how  seriously  such  a  stigma  might  affect  his 
after  life,  and  that  he  ought  not  to  let  it  rest. 

The  earnest  protests  of  the  chaplain,  together  with 
the  angry  resentment  of  his  men  at  what  had  been  done, 
finally  aroused  Captain  Conwell  and  he  decided  to  act. 


THE   SECOND  ENLISTMENT  131 

He  immediately  entered  an  appeal  to  General  Butler 
at  Fortress  Monroe  and  went  to  see  him.  Butler 
granted  him  a  personal  interview,  but  said  that  he  him- 
self was  just  then  in  such  a  controversy  with  Hancock, 
at  Washington,  that  he  could  do  little.  He  said  he 
would  have  to  straighten  out  his  own  affairs  before  he 
could  take  the  matter  up,  but  that  if  Captain  Conwell 
could  wait  he  would  then  give  it  his  attention. 

In  two  weeks,  however,  Butler  was  removed,  and 
returned  to  his  home  in  Massachusetts,  and  was  un- 
able to  do  anything  in  the  matter.  He  wrote  from 
Massachusetts  advising  Captain  Conwell  to  take  his 
case  to  President  Lincoln,  and  also  sent  a  strong  letter 
to  Lincoln,  saying  that  Captain  Conwell's  action  was 
but  an  indiscretion  of  youth  due  to  his  lack  of  full 
knowledge  of  army  regulations  and  strongly  advised  the 
President  to  reinstate  him. 

Acting  upon  this  advice.  Captain  Conwell  went  to 
Washington.  While  there,  he  had  a  memorable  inter- 
view with  President  Lincoln,  of  which  he  speaks  in  his 
lecture,  ^' Acres  of  Diamonds.'^  During  this  period, 
while  the  further  decision  as  to  the  court-martial  was 
pending,  his  friends  were  not  inactive.  A  number  of  his 
comrades  in  North  Carolina  had  organized  a  battalion 
and  elected  him  as  major.  Of  course  he  could  not 
accept  this  command  until  the  verdict  of  the  court- 
martial  had  been  set  aside.  However,  another  offer 
came  while  his  case  was  held  up,  waiting  for  papers, 
which  he  accepted  and  returned  to  active  service. 

A  friend  had  written  General  McPherson,  in  com- 
mand of  the  Seventeenth  Army  Corps,  recommending 
Captain  Conwell  as  a  staff  officer.  McPherson  wrote 
him  to  come  and  see  him  at  Chattanooga,  Tennessee, 
and,  after  a  talk,  appointed  him  as  lieutenant-colonel 
on  his  staff.     The  General  talked  over  the  matter  of 


132    RUSSELL  H.   CONWELL  AND   mS   WORK 

the  court-martial  and  advised  Conwell  to  get  it  out  of 
the  way  as  quickly  as  possible  in  order  that  he  might 
get  his  commission.  But  he  also  told  him  to  take  his 
place  at  once  on  his  staff  and  report  for  active  duty. 

The  General  said  that  he  would  write  to  Lincoln  him- 
self, asking  for  a  reversal  of  the  decision  of  the  court- 
^  martial  in  order  that  Conwell  might  the  more  quickly 
get  his  commission.  But  General  McPherson  was 
killed  before  the  letter  was  written.  Thus  Captain 
Conwell  served  as  lieutenant-colonel  with  General 
McPherson's  staff,  but  received  his  commission  after 
the  GeneraVs  death  and  after  Lincoln  was  assassinated. 
The  verdict  of  the  court-martial  was  afterward  reversed 
and  Captain  Conwell  received  his  honorable  discharge. 

However,  the  receiving  of  the  commission  was  a 
small  matter  compared  with  the  vital  experiences  of 
life  which  this  campaign  brought  to  Colonel  Conwell. 
Under  McPherson  he  was  in  many  battles  from  Resaca, 
Georgia,  to  Atlanta.  But  the  engagement  that  had 
the  most  far-reaching  consequences  to  him  was  that  of 
Kenesaw  Mountain.  He  was  severely  wounded  here 
and  left  for  dead  upon  the  field.  He  heard  the  foot- 
steps of  those  searching  for  the  wounded,  but  was  too 
weak  to  call  for  help.  They  passed  him  by  and  he  lay 
there  all  night,  amidst  the  dead  and  dying,  not  knowing 
but  that  he  himself  might  pass  away  before  morning. 
The  next  day,  searchers  seeking  for  his  body,  because 
he  was  an  officer,  found  him  and  he  was  taken  to  the 
Big  Shanty  Hospital  near  Marietta,  Georgia. 

During  those  long  night  hours  on  the  battlefield  and 
again  in  the  hospital,  the  great  riddle  of  life  and  death — 
the  meaning  and  purpose  of  it  all — began  to  press  in 
upon  Colonel  Conwell  as  these  matters  never  had  done 
before.  His  soul  reached  out  for  more  knowledge  than 
he  had  about  these  things.  He  wanted  to  know  if  there 
was  some  solution  that  would  satisfy. 


LIEUTENANT-COLONEL  CONWELL 

Skcond  Enlistment 


THE  SECOND  ENLISTMENT  133 

He  sent  for  the  chaplain,  but  when  the  chaplain  came 
Colonel  Conwell  could  not  bring  himself  to  talk 
publicly  about  religious  matters,  and  said  he  wanted 
something  to  eat.  However,  the  inner  questioning 
would  not  be  stilled.  He  sent  for  the  chaplain  again, 
and  this  time  asked  to  be  prayed  for.  The  chaplain 
made  a  formal,  perfunctory  prayer  which  angered 
Conwell,  and  he  said  bluntly  the  prayer  had  done 
him  no  good.  But,  finally,  the  two  came  to  under- 
stand each  other  and  had  many  long  talks,  in  the  course 
of  which  Conwell  asked  three  questions  that  had  been 
troubling  him: 

''Is  there  a  future  life?" 

''If  there  is,  what  does  the  character  formed  in  this 
life  have  to  do  with  it?'' 

"Will  friends  meet  again  in  the  other  world  and  know 
each  other?" 

"I  talked  these  things  over  long  and  earnestly  with 
that  chaplain,"  says  Doctor  Conwell,  in  speaking  of  this 
period  of  his  life.  "At  last  all  became  clear,  and  I  have 
never  for  a  moment  doubted  since. " 

"Is  that  what  you  would  consider  conversion?"  was 
asked  him. 

He  pondered  a  moment.  "Yes,  except  that  I  would 
say  decision  must  go  with  conversion.  It  is  not  only 
a  matter  of  emotion.  One  must  do  something.  Merely 
getting  excited  and  doing  nothing  is  not  conversion. 
Decision  and  action  must  go  with  the  change  of  thought, 
or  else  it  is  not  real.  It  is  only  effervescence.  True 
conversion  changes  the  main  purpose  of  life  from 
selfishness  to  unselfishness;  from  the  desire  to  have 
one's  own  way  to  a  willingness  to  do  whatever  God  com- 
mands, no  matter  what  the  consequences. " 

Of  his  life  experiences,  this  one  was  the  most  momen- 
tous.     It  was  his  first  real  grasp  of  eternal  things, 


134     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

without  which  he  began  to  see  there  could  be  no  satis- 
faction. His  father's  and  mother's  rehgion  now  had 
a  real  significance.  He  saw  the  substance,  when  before 
he  had  seen  but  the  form.  He  began  to  discern  the 
great  spiritual  foundation  upon  which  all  of  life's  hopes 
and  ambitions  could  securely  rest. 

Colonel  Conwell  promptly  expressed  his  convictions 
and  immediately  upon  leaving  the  hospital  made  a 
pubUc  profession  of  his  new  faith.  This  deeper  under- 
standing of  life  brought  him  great  joy  and  eventually 
led  to  great  usefulness.  But  he  was  not  then  consider- 
ing the  future.  He  simply  took  the  next  step.  Spirit- 
ually he  had  come  to  a  place  of  need  and  he  sought 
help.  But  in  allying  himself  with  good,  he  discovered 
as  the  years  went  by,  that  ^'Eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear 
heard,  neither  hath  it  entered  into  the  heart  of  man 
to  know  the  things  that  God  hath  prepared  for  them 
that  love  him."  He  found,  as  Tolstoy  has  expressed 
it,  that  "He  who  lives  for  soul,  lives  for  good" — good 
for  himself  and  good  for  others. 


CHAPTER  XV 

New  Ventures 

Admitted  to  the  Bar,  Marriage.  Removal  West. 
Life  in  Minneapolis.  Mrs.  ConwelVs  Progressive 
Editorial  as  to  Woman^s  Place  and  Interests.  Loss  of 
Home  and  Illness.  Immigration  Agent  to  Germany. 
Given  up  to  Die  in  Paris.  Health  Restored. 
Reporter  on  '^Boston  Traveller,^'  Trip  Around 
World  as  Correspondent, 

THE  wounds  that  Colonel  Conwell  received  at 
Kenesaw  Mountain  were  a  long  time  in  healing. 
After  he  left  the  Big  Shanty  Hospital,  he  was 
compelled  to  go  to  Nashville  for  still  further 
rest  and  treatment.  Here  he  reported  to  General 
Thomas  and,  as  soon  as  his  condition  would  permit, 
was  sent  to  Washington  on  a  mission  to  General  Logan. 
But  the  rough  traveling  and  hardships  of  the  journey 
reopened  his  wounds,  and  on  the  way  he  completely 
broke  down.  He  was  given  a  furlough  and  before  he 
was  able  to  again  enter  active  service  the  war  ended. 

While  at  home  waiting  for  his  wounds  to  heal,  Rus- 
sell Conwell  entered  the  law  office  of  Judge  Shurtleff, 
of  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  continued  his  law 
studies.  Here,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  Judge,  he 
repeated  from  memory  the  whole  of  Blackstone,  which 
he  had  learned  at  Newbern.  Judge  Shurtleff  considered 
it  an  unprecedented  feat  and  called  together  a  number 
of  law^^ers  to  hear  it.  They  all  agreed  that,  to  their 
knowledge,  such  a  thing  was  unknown  in  the  history 
of  the  legal  profession. 

(135) 


136     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

In  speaking  of  his  memory,  Doctor  Conwell  insists 
that  he  did  not  have  an  especially  good  memory  as  a 
boy,  but  that  he  improved  what  he  had.  This,  he 
maintains,  anyone  can  do,  and  also  accomplish  all  that 
he  has  done  and  more. 

When  the  war  was  ended,  although  the  wounds  in 
his  arm  and  shoulder  were  still  not  fully  healed,  he 
entered  the  Law  School  at  the  Albany  University  in 
New  York  State,  completed  his  law  studies  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar.  Russell  Conwell  was  now  ready 
to  face  life  for  himself.  What  he  had  made  of  himself 
was  now  to  be  put  to  the  test. 

He  was  tall,  still  somewhat  lanky,  and  thin  and 
angular  from  sickness  and  work.  But  he  had  a  person- 
ality that  instantly  won  friends.  The  ^'good-natured 
boy,  always  laughing,"  of  Wilbraham  days  was  some- 
what sobered.  But  the  same  eager  interest  in  life  that 
had  led  him  at  eight  years  of  age  to  send  for  circulars, 
till  his  mail  was  the  largest  at  the  country  post-office, 
was  still  there.  So,  too,  was  the  appreciation  of  beauty 
that  had  moved  him  as  a  child  of  ten  to  welcome  the 
dawn  with  Milton's  ''Invocation  to  Light;"  and  also 
the  determination  that  had  carried  him  as  a  lad  unaided 
through  Wilbraham.  This  keen  interest  in  affairs,  this 
love  of  the  beauty  of  life,  this  democratic  attitude 
toward  work,  made  people  like  him.  But  these  were 
no  longer  the  dominant  notes  of  his  personality.  The 
love  of  humanity  and  faith  in  God — the  legacy 
bequeathed  by  the  war — were  first  to  impress  and  most 
strongly  to  attract  those  who  met  him. 

With  his  law  studies  finished;  with  his  equipment 
for  work  full  ready,  the  sweetest  experience  of  life 
became  his.  In  1865,  shortly  after  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Jennie  Hayden, 
of  the   nearby   town    of    Chicopee    Falls.      She    had 


NEW  VENTURES  137 

been  among  his  pupils  when  he  first  taught  school. 
She  was  a  warm  friend  of  his  sister  Harriet,  a  frequent 
visitor  at  the  Conwell  home,  and  a  favorite  with  the 
entire  family. 

Life's  greatest  incentives  were  now  his.  Almost 
with  joy  he  thought  of  those  hard  years  at  Wilbraham 
and  Yale.  They  filled  him  with  confidence  for  what 
now  lay  before  him.  They  were  a  promise  of  what  he 
might  again  do.  For  now,  as  then,  he  had  nothing 
with  which  to  start  upon  the  new  life  but  determination. 

*'I  had  no  money,"  Doctor  Conwell  said,  in  speaking  ^ 
of  this  period  of  his  life.    ^'Nothing  but  my  education." 

''Don't  you  think  it  is  rather  hazardous  to  marry  on 
such  prospects?"  was  asked.  ''Wouldn't  it  have  been 
better  to  wait?" 

"No,"  was  his  emphatic  reply.  "Marriage  is  not  a 
mechanical  business.  Married  life  is  the  normal  life.  ^ 
The  ambition  to  have  a  home  is  the  greatest  incentive 
a  man  can  have.  I  don't  believe  in  waiting  to  be 
married.  I  do  not  believe  in  being  reckless;  but  there 
is  always  work  a  man  can  do,  if  he  is  earnest  and  willing. 
If  he  can't  find  one  kind  of  work  he  can  another." 

In  his  wife  he  found  a  true  helpmate.  She  had  a  sweet 
and  loving  disposition  that  matched  and  responded  to 
his  own  affectionate  nature.  She  was  as  courageous  as 
he,  and  she  faced  their  future  as  confidently.  She  was 
ambitious,  but  it  was  an  ambition  with  high  ideals. 
She  wanted  to  live  to  do  good;  was  utterly  unselfish, 
and  recognized  her  husband's  capabilities  and  threw 
herself  wholly  into  the  task  of  helping  him. 

"Persistent  faithfulness,"  Doctor  Conwell  has 
described  as  her  chief  characteristic.  "She  utterly 
effaced  herself  in  her  desire  to  help  me,"  he  has  said. 
And  permeating  all  these  qualities  was  a  forcefulness 
and  self-reliance  that  swept  on  with  his  to  dare  and  do. 
One  who  knew  her  well,  in  describing  her  said : 


138     RUSSELL  H.  CONV/ELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

''She  was  a  beautiful  woman,  with  bright,  dark  eyes, 
good  color  and  a  fine  form.  She  was  very  jolly  and 
full  of  fun,  and  could  see  the  funny  side  of  anything. 
When  others  saw  the  dark  side,  she  would  always  find 
something  to  make  it  bright.  Russell  adored  her 
and  depended  on  her.  He  confided  in  her  and  talked 
things  over  with  her.  She  believed  in  him,  encouraged 
him  and  was  anxious  to  see  him  rise.  She  never  thought 
of  herself.  She  saw  the  potential  power  in  him  and 
gladly  sacrificed  herself  to  help  him.'^  A  cousin, 
writing  to  Mrs.  Conwell  from  Williams  College,  under 
date  of  March  4, 1865,  has  this  to  sa}^  of  their  marriage : 

''I  was  very  much  gratified  to  find  that  the  people 
among  whom  I  have  been  visiting  entertain  so  high  an 
opinion  of  your  husband,  as  a  young  man  of  firm  prin- 
ciples, fine  talents  and  great  promise.  I  discovered  that 
his  friends  have — and  I  judge  not  without  reasons  that 
fully  justify  them — high  hopes  of  his  future  career, 
while  I  am  very  sure  that  it  is  my  earnest  wish  that  he 
may  more  than  realize  these  expectations.  To  stand 
as  well  as  he  seems  to  in  the  opinion  of  others  is,  to  say 
the  least,  a  compliment  to  his  intellect.  I  onl}^  hope, 
Jennie,  that  your  two  lives,  joined  in  the  highest,  ho- 
liest bonds  on  earth,  may  ever  surpass  in  success  and 
happiness  your  most  ardent  anticipation  for  the  future." 

Almost  immediately  after  they  were  married  Russell 
Conwell  decided  to  go  West.  He  had  not  outgrown 
his  childhood's  habit  of  sending  for  literature  of  all 
kinds.  An  advertisement  of  Minnesota,  and  of  the 
bright  future  of  those  who  grew  up  with  the  country, 
had  attracted  his  attention.  He  sent  for  the  printed 
matter  and  after  a  careful  study  of  it  and  of  such  other 
data  as  he  could  get,  the  two  resolved  to  make  their 
home  there. 

One  week  after  their  marriage  he  started,  leaving 


MRS.    JENNIE    CONWELL 

First  Wife  of  Dr.  Conwell 


NEW  VENTURES  139 

Mrs.  Conwell  to  follow  when  he  had  made  a  place  for 
her.  He  had  barely  enough  funds  to  pay  his  carfare. 
But  the  lack  of  capital  has  never  deterred  Russell  Con- 
well  from  going  ahead  with  what  he  thought  ought  to 
be  done.  The  first  two  dollars  he  earned  in  Minneapolis 
were  obtained  by  sawing  wood.  He  did  not  have  then, 
nor  has  he  now,  any  false  pride.  He  planted  potatoes 
and  did  whatever  he  could  find  to  do  during  those 
first  few  weeks;  but  he  also  made  friends.  A  letter 
to  Mrs.  Conwell  from  one  of  these  new  friends — Mrs. 
Keith,  with  ^vhom  he  boarded — gives  a  good  picture  of 
his  first  days  in  the  West. 

^'Dear  Friend,"  it  began,  "Your  husband  has  vol- 
unteered to  hoe  potatoes  for  Mr.  Keith  this  afternoon 
if  I  will  do  his  work,  i.  e.,  to  write  you.  As  I  have 
agreed  to  do  so,  I  shall  keep  my  word,  and  your  loss 
will  be  our  gain.  I  think,  however,  he  will  not  refuse 
to  assist  me  by  sending  you  at  least  a  note,  so  that  you 
will  not  be  so  great  a  sufferer  by  this  agreement. 

"But,  all  joking  aside,  I  have  wanted  for  some  time 
to  assure  you  of  the  high  appreciation  that  we  cherish 
for  your  warm-hearted,  noble.  Christian  husband,  and 
to  allay  your  fears  that  should  sickness  and  suffering 
come  to  him,  no  one  in  this  far-off  country  would 
minister  to  him  or  give  him  the  sympathy  and  love  of 
true  friendship.  Let  me  assure  you,  dear  friend,  that 
such  fears  are  groundless.  In  the  little  while  he  has 
been  among  us  he  has  gathered  around  him  many 
friends,  and  if  the  hour  of  adversity  should  come,  he 
will  find  them  just  as  true  as  the  old  and  tried  ones. 

"But  we  find  that  he  does  not  forget  old  friends  while 
enjoying  the  society  of  many  new  ones.  We  are  look- 
ing forward  with  interest  to  your  coming  among  us  to 
join  your  husband,  and  trust  you  will  decide  to  come 
out  this  summer.    I  think,  if  you  wish  to  employ  some 


140     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

of  your  leisure,  you  can  have  the  opportunity  to  teach; 
and  as  our  schools  are  on  the  graded  system  that  you 
are  probably  familiar  with,  you  would  find  it  pleasant. 

'^I  think  there  is  no  doubt  in  regard  to  the  success 
of  your  husband  here.  He  has  already  done  more 
business  than  you  could  reasonably  expect  a  stranger 
to  procure,  and  the  foundation  for  a  good  and  perma- 
nent business  seems  firm.  In  the  meanwhile  accept 
the  assurances  that,  until  you  do  come,  he  shall  be  as  a 
brother  to  us,  and  in  all  ways  that  we  can,  we  will  seek 
to  advance  his  interest  and  highest  good.'' 

Russell  Conwell,  as  the  writer  of  this  letter  says  was 
not  long  in  getting  a  foothold,  as  he  soon  became  the 
Minneapolis  correspondent  of  the  St.  Paul  Press,  and 
filled  a  column  every  day  with  news  of  the  town.  He 
began  to  practice  law  and  also  went  into  the  real  estate 
business.  A  few  months  after  he  had  arrived  prac- 
tically penniless,  he  was  in  a  position  to  send  for  Mrs. 
Conwell.  Keenness,  alertness,  and  a  willingness  to  do 
whatever  he  could  find  to  do,  but  not  to  be  content  with 
so  doing,  had  quickly  made  him  known  and  given  him 
a  footing  in  this  bustling  western  town. 

Mrs.  Conwell  arrived  in  August  with  her  mother  and 
brother,  Joseph  Hayden,  who  went  into  business  with 
Conwell,  and  the  prospects  of  the  young  couple  began 
to  look  bright.  As  Minneapolis  correspondent  for  the 
St.  Paul  Press,  Conwell  was  not  long  in  discovering 
that  Minneapolis  needed  and  could  support  a  paper  of 
its  own.  With  him  to  see  a  need  was  to  supply  it  if 
there  was  nobody  else  to  do  it.  In  company  with 
Colonel  Stevens  he  started  the  Minneapolis  Daily 
Chronicle,  which  has  since  become  the  Minneapolis 
Tribune.  The  weekly  edition  of  this  paper  was  called 
ConwelVs  Star  of  the  North.  In  the  editorial  of  the  first 
issue  is  given  not  only  the  purpose  of  the  paper,  but  a 


NEW  VENTURES  141 

good  index  of  its  editor's  outlook  on  life.  In  this 
article  he  says : 

'^It  will  be  appropriate  in  the  first  number  of  the  Star 
to  state  fairly  what  the  reasons  were  for  bringing  out  a 
new  paper  at  this  time  and  also  to  say  what  position 
we  intend  to  take  upon  the  questions  of  the  day.  There 
has  been  a  lack  of  such  family  reading  as  the  intelligence 
and  enterprise  of  Minnesota  would  seem  to  demand. 
The  political  papers  cannot  devote  much  time  or  space 
to  matters  of  mental  culture  and  do  their  parties  justice. 
Whenever  they  do  insert  anything  other  than  political 
news  or  comment  it  must  necessarily  be  wholly  sub- 
ordinate to  the  main  object  of  their  publication,  viz.,  to 
advance  the  interest  of  their  party.  Far  be  it  from  us 
to  blame  them.  If  they  are  party  organs,  let  them 
speak  the  things  of  their  party.     It  is  in  the  contract. 

''But  with  us  these  things  are  different.  Claiming 
to  be  the  organ  of  no  party,  bound  by  no  political  ties, 
having  no  political  history,  and  doing  whatever  we  do 
entirely  within  ourselves;  taking  nothing,  asking 
nothing  of  anyone,  we  propose  to  speak  our  own  mind 
freely  upon  any  topic  in  which  we  believe  the  people 
to  be  interested.  No  'stockholder'  can  come  in  and 
upbraid  us  if  we  differ  from  him.  No  'private  friends* 
can  come  to  'set  us  right'  if  perchance  we  tread  upon 
their  toes.  This  paper  will  be  the  organ  of  the  editor 
only,  and  any  injustice  or  wrong  that  is  brought  to  his 
notice  will  be  as  openly  and  freely  condemned  if  perpe- 
trated by  one  man  as  by  another,  and  anything  com- 
mendable will  be  as  quickly  perceived  in  one  place  as 
in  any  other.  It  is,  however,  enough  to  say  (which  we 
are  sorry  to  state  is  more  than  some  can  say)  we  are 
ourselves. 

"We  will  try  to  the  best  of  our  ability  to  carry  into 
the  family  with  the  Star  a  high  standard  of  morality, 


142     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

a  love  for  the  good,  a  respect  for  the  noble,  and  an 
increased  interest  in  education,  refinement,  and  every- 
thing that  elevates  and  dignifies  mankind.  We  say 
we  will  try  to  do  this;  but  should  we  at  any  time  fail, 
or  come  short  of  our  aim,  it  will  be  the  fault  'of  the 
head  and  not  of  the  heart. '  We  start  with  the  people. 
We  will  march  on  with  them.  They  know  the  metal 
from  the  dross,  and  we  will  rest  our  cause  with  them.'' 

Mrs.  Conwell  conducted  the  '' Ladies' Department." 
Her  initial  editorial  is  not  only  a  good  indication  of  her 
broad  outlook  on  life,  but  it  shows  how  far  in  advance 
of  the  times  was  her  thought,  and  how  courageous  and 
independent  she  was  in  voicing  it. 

''Upon  assuming  the  care  and  labor  belonging  to  the 
'Ladies'  Department'  of  this  paper,"  she  wrote,  "we 
take  upon  ourselves  a  great  responsibility.  We  feel 
how  much  happiness,  morality  and  religion  depend 
upon  the  reading  matter  furnished  by  the  family  news- 
paper. In  view  of  all  this  we  lay  down  our  plan  of 
operation  for  the  future. 

"We  repudiate  the  ideas  put  forth  by  the  Star  Com- 
pany in  their  prospectus  relating  to  the  '  Ladies'  Depart- 
ment. '  We  will  never  consent  to  conduct  any  part  of 
the  paper  which  proceeds  upon  the  supposition  that 
fashions,  receipts,  cook-books,  and  nonsense  are  the 
only  matters  of  interest  to  the  female  part  of  the  com- 
munity. Pshaw !  Is  Minnesota  so  far  behind  the  age, 
that  her  people  do  not  know  that  the  'reign  of  mind '  has 
commenced  on  earth?  Have  they  yet  to  learn  that 
there  are  found  among  our  sex  the  brightest,  clearest 
literary  minds  of  the  day? 

"Will  the  women  of  the  Northwest  be  satisfied  to  be 
represented  by  a  journal  which  concedes  to  woman 
only  just  enough  thought  to  appreciate  a  cook-book? 
Answer  us,  ye  men  whose  homes  are  cheerful  and  happy 


NEW  VENTURES  143 

in  the  presence  of  a  thinking  wife  or  daughter.  We 
know  full  well  what  your  answer  will  be.  It  will 
be  just  such  a  reply  as  should  come  from  the  hearts 
and  heads  of  intelligent,  honest,  generous  men.  You 
would  say  that  this  is  not  the  age  of  brute  force.  The 
stoutest  arm,  the  strongest  body,  does  not  necessarily 
command  the  respect  and  reverence  of  a  people  now,  as 
that  ancient  day.  It  is  the  strongest  brain,  the  deepest 
thought  that  compels  the  homage  of  the  world: 

''Woman  has  been  hampered  by  custom,  spoiled 
by  too  much  care,  bound  by  the  fascinating  cords  of 
fashion,  and  has  never  had  the  opportunity  of  proving 
whether  she  be  man^s  equal  or  not.  WTiatever  she  has 
done,  in  nearly  every  instance,  has  been  appropriated 
and  claimed  by  men.  Wlio  supposed,  until  very 
recently,  that  the  mowing  machine — the  greatest 
improvement  of  the  age — a  machine  that  saves  our 
farmers  hundreds  and  thousands  of  dollars  every  year — 
was  the  invention  of  a  woman?  How  little  did  she 
realize  the  benefit  she  was  doing  mankind  when  she 
left  the  flower-beds  she  had  been  trimming  with  her 
scissors  and  asked  her  husband  if  a  machine  for  mowing 
might  not  be  made  to  work  on  the  same  plan ! 

''But  we  do  not  wish  to  enter  into  any  argument. 
We  wish  simply  to  call  attention  to  the  matter,  and  to 
state  that  we  believe  woman  is  mentally  man's  equal; 
that  she  has  her  sphere  of  action;  that  her  place  is  not 
man's;  that  her  physical  and  mental  constitution  is 
different  from  man's  and  calls  for  different  exercises; 
that  there  is  enough  for  both  to  do  in  the  world,  and 
neither  need  be  termed  'inferior.'  We  do  not  adopt 
the  extreme  stand  of  Anna  Dickinson,  George  Francis 
Train  and  others,  nor  the  other  extreme  which  would 
treat  woman  as  an  'inferior  order  of  animals.' 

"But  we  hold  to  the  golden  mean,  claiming  that 


144     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

literature,  art,  and  science  are  as  appropriate  studies 
for  women  as  for  men;  that  women  are  as  interested 
in  all  that  disciplines  the  mind  as  are  men;  that  the 
milliner  should  have  no  more  influence  over  women 
than  the  tailor  over  men;  that  millinery,  dressmaking, 
tailoring,  receipts,  cook-books,  and  fashions  are  worthy 
of  attention,  but  not  of  the  whole  attention,  of  any  class 
of  human  beings;  that  in  conducting  this  department 
we  shall  do  as  we  please,  without  consulting  the  men 
as  to  the  propriety  of  our  action.  We  shall  select, 
write,  and  insert  such  articles  as  we  shall  think  of  inter- 
est to  'woman  as  she  should  be;'  and  when  we  make 
up  our  minds  that  nothing  else  but  the  items  recited 
in  the  Star  prospectus  are  of  interest  to  our  lady  readers, 
we  will  drop  our  pen  and  ^Hie  to  worlds  unknown. ' " 

It  is  a  fine,  clear,  vigorous  statement,  and  far  in 
advance  of  the  general  thought  of  her  day.  It  brings 
out  in  a  strong  light  her  charmingly  forceful  personal- 
ity. It  gives  a  good  picture  of  what  a  helpmate  she  was. 
One  feels  that  she  would  put  into  everything  she  did  the 
same  force  and  the  same  fine  mentality  and  high  purpose 
that  are  here  shown. 

In  addition  to  these  undertakings,  any  other  avenue 
for  earning  a  living  that  opened  was  utilized  by  Russell 
Con  well.  Singing  lessons  were  given  in  his  law  office, 
and  he  also  gave  instruction  on  the  piano.  Thus  many 
\/  a  dollar  was  added  to  the  family  income  by  his  knowl- 
edge of  music.  But  in  this  new  life  with  all  its  new 
interests  and  needs,  his  time  and  attention  were  not 
wholly  concerned  with  himself.  Ever  since  his  con- 
version in  the  Big  Shanty  Hospital  near  Marietta, 
Georgia,  and  his  open  profession  of  faith  when  able  to 
leave  the  hospital,  he  had  been  active  whenever  and 
wherever  possible  in  the  cause  of  Christ. 

Although  a  stranger  in  a  strange  land,  Russell  Con- 


NEW  VENTURES  145 

well's  activity  did  not  cease  upon  his  arrival  in  Minne- 
apolis. He  spoke  in  the  cause  of  temperance,  and  he 
made  addresses  at  Sunday-schools.  On  one  occasion, 
when  a  funeral  service  was  to  be  held  and  the  minister 
was  detained  by  a  storm,  Conwell  preached  the  funeral 
sermon.  "It  was  an  inspiring  sermon,  too,"  said  one 
who  heard  it.  He  organized  a  quartet,  himself  singing 
bass,  Mrs.  Conwell  soprano,  Mr.  Hayden  tenor,  and  a 
friend  alto;  and,  with  him  at  the  organ,  the  four  gave 
their  services  wherever  such  help  was  needed. 

But  perhaps  his  most  important  work  in  this  line  was 
the  establishment  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Minneapolis. 
He  had  been  holding  a  noon  prayer-meeting  every  day 
for  a  year  in  his  law  office.  It  was  similar  to  the  Fulton 
Street  noon  prayer-meeting  in  New  York — one  of  the 
most  remarkable  prayer-meetings  of  the  country. 
So  successful  was  this  prayer-meeting  in  Con  well's 
office  that  those  who  came  felt  they  would  like  to 
branch  out  into  some  larger  work.  A  committee  was 
formed  consisting  of  a  member  of  one  of  the  large  dry 
goods  firms  of  the  town,  a  deacon  in  the  church  of  which 
Conwell  was  a  member,  and  Conwell,  as  chairman. 
The  field  was  carefully  surveyed  and,  as  a  result,  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Minneapolis  was  started. 

Thus  several  years  slipped  away  and  prosperity 
seemed  assured.  Conwell's  business  was  growing; 
his  friends  were  increasing  and  he  was,  as  well,  taking 
an  active  part  in  the  religious  life  of  the  conamunity — 
a  work  which,  had  he  been  willing  to  admit  it,  brought 
him  more  genuine  satisfaction  than  anything  else  he  did. 
Already  he  was  beginning  to  feel  an  inner  pulling 
toward  the  ministry  that  was  given  increased  strength 
by  the  remembrance  of  his  father's  and  mother's  wishes 
in  the  matter.  But  as  yet  he  had  not  seen  this  work 
in  its  true  light  and  he  resisted  the  call. 


146     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Then,  suddenly,  disaster  came.  One  night  in  1868, 
when  the  entire  family  were  away,  the  house  caught 
fire.  Conwell  was  attending  a  G.  A.  R.  meeting  about 
a  mile  distant.  When  word  was  brought  to  him,  he 
ran  the  entire  distance,  hoping  to  arrive  in  time  to  save 
some  of  the  household  goods.  It  was  a  bitter  night, 
with  a  temperature  of  thirty-five  degrees  below  zero. 
The  running,  the  excitement,  and  the  cold,  brought  on 
a  hemorrhage  of  the  lungs.  At  first,  this  was  thought 
but  a  passing  ailment. 

The  family  fixed  themselves  in  a  few  rooms  and 
cheerily  set  their  faces  toward  retrieving  their  lost 
fortune;  but  the  hemorrhages  continued.  Often  as 
much  as  a  pint  of  blood  was  lost  at  one  time ;  he  rapidly 
grew  weak  and  thin,  and  business  was  impossible. 
The  doctors  hinted  at  tuberculosis  and  held  out  little 
hope.  Everything  had  been  lost  in  the  fire;  funds  were 
low;  no  money  was  coming  in;  and,  with  health  and 
business  gone,  the  future  looked  black.  At  last  it  was 
decided  to  take  the  little  money  that  was  left  and 
return  East.  His  family  and  friends,  if  not  Conwell 
himself,  thought  his  life  was  but  a  matter  of  weeks. 

These  were  dark  days  for  Russell  Conwell  and  his 
wife.  Everything  he  had  worked  so  hard  to  achieve 
was  lost,  and  the  money  he  had  saved  was  gone.  The 
position  he  had  labored  to  make  was  valueless,  and 
death  might  be  but  a  few  weeks  or  months  away. 

^^How  did  you  have  the  courage  even  to  try  to  go 
on?"  was  asked  him.  ''Under  such  circumstances, 
most  people  would  have  just  given  up.'' 

His  mouth  settled  into  grim  lines.      ''They  were 

dark  days,"  he  said,   "but  I  never  acknowledge  to 

V  myself  that  I  am  defeated.     I  held  on,  then.     I  kept 

planning  in  my  mind  things  to  do.     Then,  too,  one  is 

more  disheartened  if  failure  comes  through  one's  own 


NEW  VENTURES  147 

fault.  When  it  comes — as  this  did — from  nothing  for 
which  I  could  blame  myself,  I  think  one  has  more  heart 
to  try  again." 

Not  only  did  he  refuse  to  give  up  hope  himself,  but 
his  friends  stood  by  him.  It  was  thought  that  possibly 
a  trip  abroad  might  benefit  him;  and  the  warm  and 
wide  circle  of  friends  he  had  made  in  Minneapolis 
secured  his  appointment  as  Immigration  Agent  to  i 
Germany  for  the  State  of  Minnesota. 

With  this  appointment,  he  and  Mrs.  Conwell 
returned  to  Massachusetts,  and  he  sailed  for  Germany 
to  take  up  his  duties;  but  his  health  did  not  improve. 
He  finally  gave  up  the  commission  upon  which  he  had 
been  sent,  as  he  felt  he  was  not  able  to  do  the  work 
properly.  Then  he  wandered  about  Europe  from  one 
health  resort  to  another,  hoping  to  find  relief.  At 
last  he  joined  a  surveying  party  and  went  to  the  Holy 
Land,  for  the  inner  voice  was  calling  more  insistently 
to  follow  in  the  footsteps  of  Christ  and  preach  and  teach 
and  heal  the  sick.  He  desired  greatly  to  see  the  country  ' 
where  the  Saviour  had  gone  up  and  down  doing  good. 

But  the  trip  was  of  no  benefit  physically,  and  the 
hemorrhages  became  more  and  more  frequent.  He 
could  not  keep  up  with  the  party  and,  in  1869,  he  left 
it  and  went  to  Paris.  Here  he  was  so  weak  that  he 
could  no  longer  care  for  himself  and  he  entered  the 
Necker  Hospital  for  treatment.  After  an  examination, 
he  was  told  he  could  live  but  a  few  days. 

But  his  life  was  not  to  flicker  out  among  strangers  in 
a  strange  land.  He  now  had  faith  in  a  supreme  and 
loving  Being,  and  he  prayed  with  all  his  fervor  that  he 
might  be  permitted  to  again  see  his  wife,  his  father  and 
mother  and  the  woods  and  streams  of  his  native  land. 
His  prayer  was  answered  in  greater  measure  than  he 
had  dared  hope. 


148     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

His  case  had  aroused  much  interest  among  the 
physicians  of  the  hospital,  because  the  blood  from  the 
hemorrhage,  when  analyzed,  disclosed  traces  of  brass. 
The  talk  about  it  spread  outside  the  hospital  walls  and 
finally  came  to  the  ears  of  a  famous  Berlin  doctor 
then  in  Paris.  He  was  a  man  always  on  the  alert  for 
anything  new  and  remarkable  in  his  profession.  He 
came  to  the  hospital  and  studied  the  case  of  the  young 
American. 

^'Were  you  ever  shot  in  the  shoulder?"  he  finally 
asked. 

Then  came  back  to  Conwell  the  recollection  of  the 
duel  with  the  Confederate  around  the  tree  in  the 
North  Carolina  woods,  and  the  bullet  which  had  lodged 
in  his  shoulder  near  his  neck  and  which  had  never  been 
removed.     He  told  the  physician  the  incident. 

''There  is  the  trouble,''  said  the  doctor.  "That 
bullet  had  brass  in  it,  and  it  has  worked  down  into 
your  lung.  Only  the  most  skilful  operation  can  save 
you,  and  there  is  only  one  man — so  far  as  I  know — 
who  can  do  it.  He  is  a  surgeon  in  Bellevue  Hospital, 
New  York.     Even  then,  your  chance  is  slight. 

But  the  physician's  words  brought  hope — hope  of 
again  seeing  his  people  and  home,  and  perchance  of 
life  itself.  It  buoyed  him  to  attempt  the  trip  home. 
It  was  a  fearful  ordeal  and  required  all  his  determina- 
tion and  grim  tenacity  to  help  him  carry  it  through. 
Even  when  almost  unconscious  from  weakness,  he 
clung  to  that  one  purpose  to  reach  home.  Few  can 
realize  the  suffering  and  loneliness  of  that  trip,  but 
he  survived  it. 

Upon  landing  in  New  York,  Russell  Conwell  was 
taken  to  the  Bellevue  Hospital,  the  case  explained  and 
the  opinion  of  the  famous  physician  given.  The 
surgeon   of  whom   the   doctor  had   spoken  made  an 


NEW  VENTURES  149 

examination,  and  the  bullet  was  found  near  the 
third  rib.  It  had  worked  down  from  the  shoulder 
through  the  tissue  of  the  lung  to  this  position.  To 
remove  the  bullet  would  be  an  exceedingly  delicate 
operation,  and  the  chance  of  recovery  was  slim;  but 
without  it,  death  was  inevitable. 

It  was  an  anxious  time  for  all  who  loved  him;  but  the 
operation  was  successful.  The  bullet  was  removed  and, 
in  a  short  time,  health  and  strength  were  back  in  full 
tide.  With  returning  vigor  came  the  old  desire  to 
work.  Conwell  went  to  Boston  in  1870,  and  secured, 
a  position  on  the  Boston  Traveller  at  fifteen  dollars  a 
week.  He  and  Mrs.  Conwell  established  themselves  in 
a  few  rooms  and  practically  began  life  anew. 

But,  though  poor,  these  were  happy  days.  The  fear 
of  ill  health  had  been  lifted;  congenial  work  had  been 
found;  and  their  first  child,  Nima,  was  born.  The 
name  given  to  her  is  indicafive  of  the  originality  of 
Conwell's  mind.  It  is  a  Bohemian  word  meaning 
^^none  such."  Doctor  Conwell  has  a  dislike  for  nick- 
names and  never  wanted  his  children  to  have  a  name 
that  could  be  thus  misused. 

As  in  Minneapolis,  his  indefatigable  work  soon  began 
to  tell,  and  his  circumstances  to  improve.  He  opened 
a  law  office  and  also  began  to  lecture.  His  work  on 
the  newspaper,  too,  began  to  arouse  comment.  Then 
came  his  first  big  commission.  He  was  sent  by  his 
paper  to  write  up  the  battlefields  of  the  rebellion,  and 
"Russell's  Letters  from  the  Battlefields,"  became 
famous  all  over  the  country.  They  were  quoted  and 
commented  upon  widely.  Simply  as  descriptive  writ-  y 
ing  they  were  vivid  pieces  of  literature.  But  the  human 
interest  element  was  woven  in,  together  with  memories 
of  the  battles  that  had  been  fought;  and  not  only  the 
soldiers,  but  everyone   throughout   the   country  read 


150     RUSSELL  H.  CON  WELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

them  eagerly.  (See  Appendix,  ''Russell's  Letters  from 
the  Battlefields.") 

These  letters  were  followed  by  a  trip  around  the 
world  as  special  correspondent  for  the  Boston  Traveller 
and  the  New  York  Tribune.  He  was  already  the  New 
England  correspondent  for  the  Tribune,  so  it  was  an 
easy  matter  to  place  his  articles  from  abroad  with  the 
big  New  York  paper  as  well  as  with  the  Boston  Traveller. 

WhQH  Conwell  returned  from  this  trip,  he  brought 
out  his  first  book,  published  by  Lee  and  Shepard  of 
Boston,  ''Why  and  How  the  Chinese  Emigrate  and 
the  Means  They  Adopt  of  Getting  to  America."  The 
Chinese  question  was  causing  great  excitement  just 
then,  and  this  book  was  timely  and  popular. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

Busy  Days  in  Boston 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  about  Meeting  Tennyson, 
Gladstone,  Garibaldi,  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Whittier, 
and  Many  Other  Famous  People.  His  Work 
as  a  Lawyer.  Free  Legal  Advice  to  the  Poor. 
The  Boston  Young  Men's  Congress.  His  Tremont 
Temple  Sunday-school  Class. 

UPON  his  return  from  his  trip  around  the  world, 
Russell  Conwell  was  offered  an  editorial  posi- 
tion upon  the  Boston  Traveller.  This  he  accepted. 
His  work  now  broadened  in  many  waj^s, 
and  his  days  became  increasingly  active.  He  wrote 
not  only  for  his  own  paper,  but  he  did  special  work  for 
other  papers  and  periodicals  throughout  the  country, 
and  this  necessitated  much  traveling. 

The  demand  for  lectures  increased  and  these  took 
him  to  various  parts  of  the  country.  In  addition,  he 
went  abroad  many  times  in  the  interest  of  different 
newspapers  and  publications,  and  interviewed  many 
distinguished  men  and  women  of  that  period. 

He  thus  obtained  a  wonderful  kaleidoscopic  picture 
of  life.  From  the  West — where  his  work  took  him  to 
the  very  frontiers  of  civilization  and  he  mingled  with 
hardy  pioneers  and  obtained  their  primitive  outlook 
upon  life — he  went  to  the  very  heart  of  the  slums  of 
Boston  among  the  poor  and  suffering,  and  from  there 
he  boarded  a  steamer  bound  for  the  old  and  cultured 
civilization  of  Europe,  to  view  its  superfine  luxuries 
and  mingle  with  some  of  its  best  representatives. 

(151) 


152     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

On  one  of  these  foreign  trips  he  saw  Bismarck — "A 
great,  large-hearted  German, "  Doctor  Conwell  describes 
him,  ''with  a  laugh  that  fairly  shook  the  building. 
He  was  a  rough,  rude  soldier  with  hard  features;  but 
I  do  not  believe,"  he  observed,  thoughtfully,  ''that  he 
would  have  shot  Miss  Cavell. " 

Doctor  Conwell  also  saw  Von  Molke,  whom  he  remem- 
bers as  a  dignified  soldier  and  a  most  polished  gentle- 
man. His  interview  with  Tennyson  remains  vividly 
in  his  memory,  and  is  one  of  the  most  pleasant  that 
he  recalls. 

He  went  to  seen  Tennyson  in  company  with  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe  and  spent  an  afternoon  with  the  poet. 
It  was  during  this  interview  that  Tennyson  told  about 
the  writing  of  the  poem,  "Break,  Break,  Break,"  which 
is  probably  known  wherever  the  English  language 
is   spoken. 

This  poem  was  written  shortly  after  the  loss  of  a 
loved  one.  The  poet  had  gone  to  the  seashore,  upon 
the  advice  of  friends,  in  the  hope  that  new  scenes  might 
fill  his  mind  with  other  interests  and  lessen  his  grief. 
As  he  walked  upon  the  beach  and  gazed  out  over  the 
waters  the  view  took  form  in : 

"Break,  break,  break, 
On  thy  cold  gray  stones,  O  sea." 

Then  over  him  swept  the  memory  of  his  bereave- 
ment. The  scene  before  him  vanished.  All  that  he 
saw  or  thought  was  his  loss,  and  the  mental  picture 
ended  in: 

"I  would  that  my  heart  could  utter, 
The  thoughts  that  arise  in  me." 

The  following  day  he  had  the  same  experience  and, 
as  he  gazed  out  over  the  sparkling  waters,  his  thought 
took  shape  in : 

"The  stately  ships  go  on 
To  their  haven  under  the  hill." 


BUSY  DAYS  IN  BOSTON  153 

Then  again  the  overwhelming  sense  of  his  loneliness 
swept  over  him,  and  he  finished: 

"But  oh,  for  the  touch  of  a  vanished  hand, 
And  the  sound  of  a  voice  that  is  still." 

Conwell  stayed  a  week  with  Garibaldi  and  walked 
with  him  around  Caprera,  the  island  owned  by  Gari- 
baldi, and  where  he  made  his  home.  *'It  was  a  great 
experience,''  Doctor  Conwell  says  in  recalling  it. 
*'We  would  sit  up  and  talk  half  the  night.  That  week 
with  him  was  practically  the  whole  of  Italian  history. 
It  made  me  keenly  interested  in  Italian  affairs — an 
interest  I  have  never  lost.  All  these  interviews,  how- 
ever, were  a  great  education.  They  made  me  want  to 
read  and  know  more  about  the  prople  and  countries 
I  saw." 

**My  interview  with  Dickens,  for  instance,  gave  me 
a  greater  desire  than  I  had  previously  had  to  read  his 
books.  I  saw  him  a  few  days  before  he  died,  so,  of 
course,  he  was  scarcely  his  usual  self.  He  was  fussy 
and  nervous,  but  wonderful,  despite  the  state  of  his 
health.  He  kept  us  much  longer  than  we  had  expected 
to  stay. " 

Doctor  Conwell's  recollection  of  Gladstone  is  most 
pleasant.  ''He  was  a  good,  kindly  old  English  gentle- 
man and  he  talked  long  with  me  about  American  affairs. 
I  was  amazed  at  the  scope  of  his  knowledge  of  them.'* 

Just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Franco-German  war, 
Conwell  attended  a  banquet  in  Paris  at  w^hich  the 
Emperor  and  Empress  were  present.  ''Eugenia  was 
a  beautiful  woman,"  he  says,  "and,"  he  added,  "she 
really  was  the  whole  government." 

Victor  Hugo  impressed  him  as  a  stern,  reserved 
man,  w^ho  hated  Napoleon  the  Third,  and  looked 
upon  his  ascension  to  the  throne  as  a  great  crime. 


154     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Doctor  Conwell  saw  Emperor  Francis  Joseph,  and 
attended  a  reception  to  William  the  Third  of  Ger- 
many at  his  palace.  In  fact,  there  were  few  people 
of  note  that  he  did  not  interview,  or  events  of  impor- 
tance at  which  he  was  not  present  as  a  journalist. 

Li  Hung  Chang,  the  famous  Chinese  statesman,  was 
among  those  interviewed  during  these  years.  He 
impressed  Conwell  as  a  stingy  old  man — careful  not 
to  spend  a  cent.  An  indication  of  this  was  his  failure 
to  serve  his  visitors  with  tea — the  custom  in  China. 
''He  had  a  genial  side  to  his  nature,  though, '^  con- 
cluded Doctor  Conwell,  ''and  when  I  called  upon  him, 
he  was  playing  leap-frog  with  his  grandchildren,  and 
also  letting  them  ride  on  his  back,  under  the  pretense 
that  he  was  an  elephant. '' 

However,  not  all  of  Doctor  Conwell^s  interviews 
were  with  distinguished  people  abroad.  He  also  met 
many  men  of  note  in  America.  In  this  way  he  came 
to  know  Henry  Ward  Beecher  very  well.  The  man — 
whose  sermons  as  a  child  he  had  read  and  whom,  as  a 
young  man,  upon  his  first  visit  to  New  York,  he  had 
heard  preach  that  remarkable  sermon  in  which 
Beecher  auctioned  off  a  slave  woman — came  to  have  an 
important  place  and  a  strong  influence  in  his  life. 

"My  acquaintance  with  Henry  Ward  Beecher," 
Doctor  Conwell  says,  "was  the  most  intimate  that  I 
had  with  any  public  man.  I  was  often  in  New  York 
for  several  months  at  a  time  doing  special  work  on  the 
Tribune.  At  such  times,  I  always  reported  Beecher's 
sermons.  When  he  had  anything  special  to  be  written 
up,  he  would  send  for  me.  We  traveled  together  a 
great  deal,  and,  later,  when  I  myself  was  lecturing,  I 
met  him  often  on  my  lecture  trips." 

Bayard  Taylor  was  another  of  ConwelFs  intimates 
of  these  days.     Taylor  was  one  of  the  editors  of  the 


BUSY  DAYS  IN  BOSTON  155 

New  York  Tribune  and  Conwell,  through  his  connection 
with  the  paper,  had  become  acquainted  with  him. 
They  had  chanced  to  meet  upon  one  of  Conwell's  trips 
abroad  and  had  traveled  together  from  London  to 
Italy.  After  his  death  Doctor  Conwell  wrote  a  biog- 
raphy of  him;  and  when  the  great  memorial  service 
was  arranged  for  him  in  Tremont  Temple,  Boston,  the 
Young  Men's  Congress  asked  Conwell  to  call  upon 
Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  and  request  him  to  write  a 
poem  upon  Bayard  Taylor's  death  for  the  occasion. 

^*I  called  upon  Mr.  Holmes  and  told  him  what  was 
wanted,"  says  Doctor  Conwell  in  recalling  the  inci- 
dent. ''I  remember  the  occasion  well.  He  was  sit- 
ting in  a  rocking  chair.  He  rocked  back  and  kicked 
up  his  feet,  and  ridiculed  the  idea  as  absurd. 

*' 'I  write  a  poem  on  Bayard  Taylor?'"  he  said.  'No; 
but  I  tell  you,  if  you  will  get  Mr.  Longfellow  to  write 
a  poem  on  Bayard  Taylor's  death,  I  will  read  it!'  So 
I  went  to  Mr.  Longfellow  and  told  him  what  Doctor 
Holmes  had  said,  and  here  is  the  poem  he  wrote."  And 
Doctor  Conwell  recited : 

"  *Dead  he  lay  among  his  books! 
The  peace  of  God  was  in  his  looks. 
As  the  statues  in  the  gloom 
Watch  o'er  Maximilian's  tomb, 
So  these  volumes  from  their  shelves 
Watched  him,  silent  as  themselves. 
Ah,  his  hand  will  never  more 
Turn  their  storied  pages  o'er. 
Never  more  his  lips  repeat 
Songs  of  theirs,  however  sweet. 
Let  the  lifeless  body  rest! 
He  is  gone  who  was  its  guest. 
Gone  as  travelers  haste  to  leave 
An  inn,  nor  tarry  until  eve. 
Traveler!  in  what  realms  afar, 
In  what  planet,  in  what  star, 
In  what  gardens  of  delight 
Rest  thy  weary  feet  tonight. 
Poet,  thou  whose  latest  verse 
Was  a  garland  on  thy  hearse, 


156     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Thou  Tiast  sung  with  organ  tone 
In  Deukahon's  Hfe  thine  own. 
On  the  ruins  of  the  past, 
Blooms  the  perfect  flower,  at  last. 
Friend,  but  yesterday,  the  bells 
Rang  for  thee  their  loud  farewells. 
And  today  they  toll  for  thee, 
Lying  dead  beyond  the  sea. 
Lying  dead  among  thy  books, 
The  peace  of  God  in  all  thy  looks.'  " 

Whittier  was  another  distinguished  American  with 
whom  Conwell  spent  many  hours  in  the  poet's  charm- 
ing, old-fashioned  home  in  Amesbury.  ''I  used  to 
run  out  to  his  home  frequently,"  says  Doctor  Con- 
well,  *^and  in  his  study,  talk  over  with  him  matters  in 
which  we  were  both  interested.'^ 

That  study  is  a  restful  room.  Many  pleasant  hours 
the  aged  poet  and  the  young  newspaper  man  passed 
together  in  it.  It  looks  out  upon  a  peaceful  garden. 
The  walls  are  covered  with  photographs,  autographed 
poems  and  mementos  of  many  kinds  from  friends  and 
admirers  all  over  the  world. 

The  furniture  is  old-fashioned  and  the  desk  upon 
which  the  poet  wrote  is  small  and  cramped  according 
to  present-day  standards;  but  an  atmosphere  of  peace 
and  charm  pervaded  the  place  that  was  an  inspiration 
and  strength  to  the  busy  young  newspaper  man  who 
came  here  so  frequently. 

"I  once  asked  Whittier  what  was  his  favorite  poem," 
says  Doctor  Conwell  when  recalling  these  days.  ''He 
replied  that  he  had  not  thought  very  much  about  it, 
but  said  there  was  one  that  he  especially  remembered. 
It  was  this: 

"  *I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift, 
Their  fronded  palms  in  air; 
I  only  know  I  cannot  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care.' 

"I  also  asked  him,  'Mr.  Whittier,  how  could  you 
write  all  those  war  songs  which  sent  us  young  men  to 


BUSY  DAYS  IN  BOSTON  157 

war,  and  you  a  peaceful  Quaker?  I  cannot  understand 
it!'  He  smiled  and  said  that  his  great-grandfather 
had  been  on  a  ship  that  was  attacked  by  pirates;  and, 
as  one  of  the  pirates  was  climbing  up  the  rope  into 
their  ship,  his  great-grandfather  grasped  a  knife  and 
cut  the  rope,  saying  If  thee  wants  the  rope,  thee  can 
have  it.'  He  said  he  had  inherited  something  of  the 
same  spirit. " 

Another  question  which  Conwell  put  to  Whittier 
was  of  an  extremely  personal  nature,  and  shows  how 
intimate  they  were.  ''Several  of  us  had  been  discuss- 
ing one  day  in  the  newspaper  office  after  our  work  was 
done,  why  Whittier  had  never  married,"  said  Doctor 
Conwell  in  speaking  of  this  particular  interview.  ''I 
said  I  would  go  and  ask  him.  I  went  out  to  his  house 
and  approached  the  subject  from  all  possible  sides, 
with  what  I  thought  were  leading  questions;  but  the 
poet  did  not  respond  in  the  way  I  wished.  Finally  I 
asked  him  point  blank.  He  smiled  but  again  evaded, 
and  I  returned  to  my  co-workers  no  more  enlightened 
on  the  subject  than  when  I  left.  The  next  day,  how- 
ever, I  received  a  letter  from  Whittier,  which  read: 

"'Dear  Colonel: — I  thank  thee  for  thy  interest  in 
my  humble  past  and  hazy  future.  It  was  a  blest  con- 
ference we  had  on  First-day.  Come  again  and  let  us 
walk  longer  by  the  river.  I  enclose  the  answer  I 
could  not  give  thee  yesterday. 

"'Thy  Friend, 

"  'J.  G.  Whittier. 
"  'Amesbury,  July  10,  1871.'  " 

Enclosed  was  the  poem  entitled  "Memories."  (See 
Appendix.) 

But  busy  as  Conwell  was  with  his  newspaper,  maga- 
zine and  book  work — for  he  wrote  many  books  in 


158     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

those  days — this  was  but  a  small  part  of  his  activities. 
He  became  more  and  more  widely  known  as  a  lecturer 
and  the  calls  for  him  to  speak  became  more  and  more 
frequent.  While  upon  one  of  his  trips  abroad,  he  gave 
a  series  of  lectures  at  Cambridge,  England,  on  Italian 
history,  that  attracted  much  favorable  comment. 
They  grew  out  of  the  interest  in  the  subject  which 
Garibaldi  had  aroused  in  him. 

It  was  also  during  these  busy  days  in  Boston  that 
Con  well  wrote  a  biography  of  Daniel  e  Manin,  the 
great  Venetian  statesman,  for  whom  Garibaldi  had 
aroused  his  admiration.  This  manuscript  was  thought 
to  have  been  destroyed  by  a  fire  at  his  Boston  home; 
and  it  was  not  until  years  afterwards  that  it  was  found 
in  a  barrel  in  the  barn  where,  in  the  confusion,  it  had 
been  hastily  placed  for  safe  keeping,  and  then  forgotten. 

Conwell's  law  practice  steadily  increased.  He  had 
an  office  in  Somerville,  practically  a  suburb  of  Boston, 
where  he  now  lived,  and  also  one  in  Tremont  Temple 
in  the  city  proper.  In  this  law  practice  he  took  a 
step  unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the  profession  in 
Boston.  He  was  ever  ready  to  respond  to  the  needs  of 
the  poor,  and  in  his  newspaper  work  he  often  saw  how 
a  little  legal  advice  would  lift  the  poor  and  ignorant 
over  a  rough  place  in  the  road.  So  he  inserted  in  the 
Boston  paper  the  following  notice: 

*^Any  deserving,  poor  person  wishing  legal  advice 
or  assistance  will  be  given  the  same  free  of  charge, 
any  evening  except  Sunday,  at  No^  10  Rialto 
Building,  Devonshire  Street.  None  of  these  cases 
will  be  taken  into  court  for  pay." 

These  cases  Conwell  prepared  as  attentively  and 
took  into  court  with  as  great  a  determination  to  wdn 
as  those  for  which  he  received  large  fees.     This  pro- 


BUSY  DAYS  IN  BOSTON  159 

ceeding  laid  him  open  to  much  professional  criticism.^- 
His  action  was  said  to  be  unprofessional,  sensational 
and  a  "bid  for  popularity."  But  criticism  did  not 
stop  him.  The  wrongs  of  many  an  ignorant  man, 
suffering  through  the  greed  of  men  over  him,  were 
righted.  Those  who  robbed  the  poor  under  various 
guises  were  made  to  feel  the  hand  of  the  law. 

And  for  none  of  these  cases  did  Conwell  the  lawyer 
ever  take  a  cent  of  pay.  He  kept  his  law  office  open 
at  night  for  those  who  could  not  come  during  the  day, 
and  gave  counsel  and  legal  advice  free  to  the  poor. 
Often  during  the  evening  he  had  as  many  as  half  a 
hundred  of  these  clients,  too  poor  to  pay  for  legal 
aid,  yet  sadly  needing  help  to  right  their  wrongs. 

Another  class  of  clients  who  brought  Conwell  much 
work  but  no  profit  were  the  widows  and  orphans  of 
soldiers  seeking  aid  to  obtain  pensions.  To  such  he 
never  turned  a  deaf  ear,  no  matter  what  multitude  of 
duties  pressed.  He  charged  no  fee,  even  when  to  win 
the  case  he  was  compelled  to  go  to  Washington.  Nor 
would  he  give  up  the  case— no  matter  what  work  it 
entailed — until  the  final  verdict  was  given.  His  part- 
ners say  he  never  lost  a  pension  case,  nor  ever  made  ' 
a  cent  by  one. 

Attorney  Conwell  was  considered  an  expert  in  con- 
tested election  cases,  and  he  frequently  appeared 
before  the  legislature  in  behalf  of  cities  and  towns  on 
matters  over  which  it  had  jurisdiction.  One  who  knew 
him  personally,  speaking  of  these  days  says: 

*^  Conwell  prepared  and  presented  many  bills  to 
Congressional  committees  at  Washington,  and  appeared 
as  counsel  in  several  Louisiana  and  Florida  election 
cases.  His  arguments  before  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  in  several  important  patent  cases 
were  reported  to  the  country  by  the  Associated  Press.  ^ 


160     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

He  had  at  one  time  considerable  influence  with  the 
President  and  Senators  in  poUtical  appointments;  and 
some  of  the  best  men  still  in  government  office  in 
this  state  (Massachusetts)  and  in  other  New  England 
states,  say  they  owe  their  appointment  to  his  active 
friendship  in  visiting  Washington  on  their  behalf. 
But  it  does  not  appear  that,  through  all  these  years 
of  work  and  political  influence,  he  ever  asked  for  an 
appointment  for  himself.  '^ 

An  unwritten  law  in  Conwell's  law  office  was  that 
neither  he  nor  his  partners  should  ever  accept  a  case 
if  their  client  were  in  the  wrong  or  guilty.  But  this  very 
fact  made  evil-doers  the  more  anxious  to  secure  him. 
They  knew  it  would  create  the  impression  at  once  that 
they  were  innocent. 

A  story  that  went  the  rounds  of  legal  circles  in 
Boston,  and  finally  was  published  in  the  Boston  Sunday 
Times,  shows  how  he  was  cleverly  fooled  by  a  pick- 
pocket. The  man  charged  with  the  crime  came  to 
Attorney  Conwell  to  get  him  to  take  the  case.  So  well 
did  he  play  the  part  of  injured  innocence  that  Colonel 
Conwell  was  completely  deceived  and  threw  himself 
heart  and  soul  into  the  work  of  clearing  him. 

When  the  case  came  up  for  trial,  the  lawyer  and 
cfient  sat  together  in  the  court-room  and  Colonel 
Conwell  made  such  an  earnest  and  forceful  plea  in 
behalf  of  the  innocent  young  man,  and  the  harm 
already  done  him  by  having  such  a  charge  laid  against 
his  door,  that  the  district  attorney  agreed  to  dismiss 
the  case  at  once.  So  lawyer  and  client  walked  out  of 
the  court  together,  happy  and  triumphant,  to  Colonel 
Conwell's  oflSce,  where  the  pickpocket  paid  Attorney 
Conwell  his  fee  out  of  the  lawyer's  own  pocket-book 
which  he  had  deftly  abstracted  in  the  court-room. 

^'What  was  your  most  interesting  case?"  was  once 


BUSY  DAYS  IN  BOSTON  161 

asked  Doctor  Con  well.  He  thought  a  moment  and 
replied,  ' '  It  was  a  murder  case.  I  came  mto  it  after  the 
supposed  murderer  had  been  sentenced  for  life.  He 
pleaded  'not  guilty,'  but  made  no  defense.  The  ver- 
dict went  against  him,  and  when  I  came  into  the  affair 
he  was  serving  his  life  sentence.  I  was  called  to  settle 
the  estate  of  his  son  and  discovered  that  the  son  had 
in  his  possession  some  property  of  the  murdered  man. 

^'Suspicion  had  never  been  directed  to  the  son  at  all; 
but  when  I  went  to  see  the  man  in  prison  to  get  him  to 
sign  some  papers  concerning  the  son's  estate,  I  said, 
'You  did  not  kill  that  man.  It  was  your  son  that  did 
it.'  At  my  words  he  broke  down.  But  still  he  did  not 
admit  it.  I  was  so  convinced  of  his  innocence  that, 
without  his  permission,  I  took  the  matter  up  and  brought 
it  again  through  the  court,  with  the  result  that  he  was 
finally  pardoned.     He  had  suffered  to  shield  his  son." 

Into  work  for  temperance  Colonel  Conwell  went 
earnestly.  He  spoke  for  the  cause  and  also  helped 
individuals  suffering  from  the  habit.  Many  a  drunk- 
ard he  took  to  his  Somerville  home,  nursed  all  night, 
and  in  the  morning  endeavored  to  awaken  him  to  a  desire 
to  live  a  different  life.  Deserted  wives  and  children 
of  drunkards  came  to  him  for  aid,  and  many  of  the  free 
law  cases  were  in  behalf  of  those  wronged  through 
drink. 

Friend  always  of  the  workingmen,  Colonel  Conwell 
was  persistently  urged  by  their  party  to  accept  a  nom- 
ination for  Congress;  but  he  as  persistently  refused. 
However,  he  worked  hard  in  pohtics  for  others  and  man- , 
aged  one  campaign,  in  which  General  Nathaniel  P. 
Banks  was  running  on  an  independent  ticket,  and 
elected  him  by  a  large  majority. 

Charles  Sumner  and  Henry  Wilson  presented  Con- 
well's  name  for  United  States  Consulship  at  Naples 

11 


V 


162     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

because  his  lectures  at  Cambridge,  England,  on  Italian 
history  had  attracted  so  nnuch  favorable  comment  on 
account  of  the  deep  research  they  showed  and  keen 
appreciation  of  the  Italian  character.  At  one  time  he 
was  guardian  of  more  than  sixty  orphan  children  and 
three  of  the  most  destitute  of  these  were  left  a  fortune 
of  $50,000  through  his  intercession  with  a  relative. 

In  addition  to  his  newspaper  work,  his  lecturing  and 
practice,  Colonel  Conwell  went  actively  into  real  estate 
operations.  In  Somerville,  a  growing  suburban  sec- 
tion, he  started  the  Somerville  Journal,  a  newspaper,  and 
began  various  real  estate  operations  that  materially 
assisted  in  the  growth  of  the  place.  Two  streets  in 
Somerville  were  named  after  him — one,  Conwell  Street 
and  the  other,  Conwell  Avenue.  He  built  a  beautiful 
home  in  what  is  now  the  Tufts  College  district.  This 
is  one  of  the  loveliest  sections  around  Boston.  The 
land  is  elevated,  and  beautiful  views  are  obtained  of 
Boston  and  the  towns  along  the  Mystic  River. 

Despite  these  many  and  far-reaching  business 
activities,  he  found  time  for  interests  other  than  his 
own.  As  in  Minneapolis,  he  entered  energetically  into 
all  work  of  the  community  that  made  for  better- 
ment  and  progress. 

One  of  the  institutions  which  Colonel  Conwell  founded 
at  this  time  and  which  has  played  an  important  part  in 
Boston's  civic  life,  was  Boston's  Young  Men's  Congress. 
It  was  organized  in  1875  by  Conwell  after  he  had  dis- 
cussed the  project  with  Charles  Sumner.  So  important 
a  body  did  it  become  that  it  was  incorporated  in  1885. 
It  was  modeled  after  the  Lower  House  of  Congress  of 
the  National  Legislature  and  was  a  school  of  the 
actual  work  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  The 
Manual  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature  was  used  for 
its  rules.     Its  sessions  opened  the  first  Monday  in 


BUSY  DAYS  IN  BOSTON  163 

October  and  it  met  every  Monday  night  during  the 
winter. 

The  congress  had  at  one  time  more  than  a  hundred 
members,  and  it  became  one  of  the  notable  associations 
of  Boston.  Bills  were  introduced  as  in  the  legislature, 
and  all  the  important  subjects  of  the  day  were  discussed. 
The  tariff,  suffrage,  immigration — whatever  was  fore- 
most in  the  public  mind — was  argued  pro  and  con ;  and 
many  were  the  heated  debates,  and  widespread  was  the 
interest  in  the  conclusions  reached. 

Many  of  the  prominent  men  of  Boston  were  members 
of  this  congress.  Hon.  John  D.  Long,  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  in  1880-83  and  afterwards  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  was  one  of  its  members;  so  also  was  Elmer 
A.  Stevens,  at  one  time  Treasurer  of  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Mr.  Stevens  says  that  his  success  as  a  pubhc 
speaker  was  due  to  the  training  he  received  in  the 
''Young  Men's  Congress." 

Other  members  included  Charles  H.  Innes,  then  a 
young  attorney  and  later  a  member  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Senate;  William  T.  A.  Fitzgerald,  a  lawyer,  who 
became  a  Senator  and  afterward  register  of  deeds  in 
Suffolk  County — one  of  the  most  remunerative  posi- 
tions in  the  gift  of  the  people;  Judge  Barnes  of  East 
Boston  court,  who  was  for  many  years  a  member  and 
speaker  of  the  congress;  March  G.  Bennett,  a  member 
of  the  Massachusetts  House  of  Representatives;  Ben- 
jamin C.  Lane  and  Malcolm  G.  Nichols,  who  became 
members  of  the  Boston  city  council.  Judge  Riley  of  the 
Maiden  court  and  a  prominent  figure  in  the  Demo- 
cratic poUtics  of  Massachusetts;  John  Buckley  of 
Cambridge,  a  deputy  collector  of  internal  revenue; 
and  Harry  Grigor  of  the  customs  service.  Later  these 
two  men  went  prominently  into  social  welfare  work. 

In  speaking  of  the  work  of  the  congress,  one  of  its 


164     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

members  has  said,  ''The  congress  was  not  sectarian. 
Many  Catholics  bore  no  inconsiderable  part  in  its 
success  during  the  many  years  of  its  existence.  I  men- 
tion this  to  show  that,  while  the  congress  was  founded 
by  Colonel  Russell  H.  Conwell,  who  was  not  a  Catholic, 
it  partook  of  none  of  the  petty  religious  prejudices  of 
the  day." 

Another  member  regarded  the  congress  as  the  high- 
est class  debating  society  he  had  ever  attended.  It  was 
widely  copied.  The  Law  School  of  Boston  University 
and  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association  both 
organized  similar  societies.  Visitors  were  admitted  to 
its  sessions  and  occasionally  a  Ladies'  Night  was  held. 
Once  a  year  a  supper  was  given  which  was  a  most 
delightful  and  interesting  function,  as  it  included 
among  its  members  and  guests  notable  men,  not  only 
from  Boston,  but  from  many  parts  of  the  country.  The 
congress  disbanded  in  1913-14,  but  for  nearly  forty 
years  it  was  one  of  the  prominent  and  influential  organi- 
zations of  Boston. 

Another  association  that  was  almost  equally  far- 
y  reaching  in  its  influence  was  the  Tremont  Temple 
Bible  Class  organized  by  Colonel  Conwell.  When  he 
returned  to  Boston  to  live,  he  allied  himself  with  Tre- 
mont Temple  Baptist  Church,  the  church  of  his  boy- 
hood friend.  Deacon  Chipman,  who  figured  in  his  first 
adventure  in  Boston.  Conwell  started  a  Bible  class 
which  grew  so  rapidly  that  it  soon  beame  necessary 
to  secure  a  hall  in  which  it  could  meet.  Its  member- 
ship numbered  about  eight  hundred,  but  between  two 
and  three  thousand  people  often  attended  its  meetings. 

The  Sunday-school  lesson  for  the  day  was  taken  up 
by  Conwell,  who  gave  a  little  talk  upon  it,  and  questions 
and  answers  and  discussions  followed.  The  original- 
ity and  the  vitality  of  the  discussions,  and  the  applica- 


BUSY  DAYS  IN  BOSTON  165 

tion  of  the  truths  taught  to  the  everday  problems  of 
life,  made  the  class  meetings  unusually  helpful  and 
interesting,  and  attracted  to  them  thousands  of  the 
business  men  of  Boston. 

In  addition  to  the  study  and  discussions  of  the  lessons, 
the  class  did  much  work  in  the  slum  district  of  the 
North  End.  The  poor  and  sick  were  visited,  and  books, 
clothing  and  provisions  distributed  among  them.  The 
class  had  an  excellent  male  quartet — wherever  Conwell 
was  there  was  always  good  music — and  the  quartet 
helped  the  work  of  the  class  in  this  section  by  its 
singing. 

A  second  child  was  born  in  the  Conwell  family  during 
these  years — a  son,  Leon — now  editor  and  publisher  of 
the  Somerville  Journal,  founded  by  his  father.  He 
is  a  prominent  and  influential  resident  of  Somerville 
and  has  been  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  State 
Legislature. 

Thus,  writing,  lecturing,  traveling,  practicing  law, 
dealing  in  real  estate,  conducting  a  newspaper,  helping 
in  the  civic  and  religious  life  of  the  community,  Colonel 
Conwell's  days  were  filled  with  incessant  activity.  He 
lived  life  as  zestfully  as  he  had  done  in  boyhood,  but  to 
larger  ends.  Then  the  years  were  giving.  Now  he  was 
using  what  they  had  given.  Even  now,  as  he  gave,  he 
was  receiving.  His  contact  with  all  phases  and  con- 
ditions of  life,  his  keen  interest  in  all  he  saw  and  heard, 
his  w^arm  sympathies  that  carried  him  right  into  the 
heart  of  things,  enriched  and  broadened  him.  These 
busy  years  were  prolific  of  much  building  other  than 
houses,  legal  emoluments  and  bank  accounts. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

His  Entry  into  the  Ministry 

The  Death  of  Mrs.  Conwell.  Increasing  Interest  in 
Religious  Work.  Doctor  ConwelVs  Second  Marriage. 
The  Lexington  Church.  His  Decision  to  Enter  the 
Ministry. 

Ell  seemed  to  be  flowering  out  once  more  for  the 
Conwell  family  in  happy  and  useful  activity. 
Colonel  Conwell  himself  was  becoming  widely 
known  by  his  writings  and  lecturing;  was  build- 
ing up  a  good  law  practice;  was  conducting  large  and 
successful  real  estate  operations;  and  was  prominent 
in  the  social,  pohtical  and  religious  life  of  the  commu- 
nity. Mrs.  Conwell  was  equally  popular  and  busy  in 
social  and  religious  circles;  and  was  as  ably  and  force- 
fully conducting  a  woman's  department  in  the  Somer- 
ville  Journal  as  she  had  done  in  the  Minneapolis  Star, 
The  two  children — Nima  and  Leon — were  growing  into 
sturdy  youngsters,  brightening  and  making  happy 
the  family  circle.  A  handsome  home  was  nearing  com- 
pletion for  them  in  one  of  the  most  beautiful  parts  of 
Somerville. 

Then  a  tragic  blow  fell.  In  1872,  after  a  few  days' 
illness  which  was  not  thought  to  be  serious,  Mrs.  Con- 
well passed  away.  With  her  usual  cheery  spirit,  she 
had  made  light  of  her  sickness.  She  had  refused  med- 
ical help,  insisting  that  her  ailment  was  trifling.  The 
last  time  she  went  upstairs  she  laughed  and  joked,  the 
family  say,  as  she  lifted  herself  from  step  to  step,  the 
pain,  though  she  would  not  admit  it,  being  too  severe  for 

(166) 


HIS  ENTRY  INTO   THE  MINISTRY  167 

her  to  walk.  She  was  brave,  cheery,  and  self-effacing 
to  the  end.  Her  husband  left  her  in  the  morning, 
thinking  she  was  better,  to  return  to  find  her  dead. 
The  rheumatic  trouble  from  which  she  was  suffering 
suddenly  went  to  her  heart  and  before  aid  could  be 
secured  she  had  left  them. 

The  months  that  followed  were  dark  ones  for  Colonel 
Conwell.  Ordinary  occupations  palled.  He  continued 
his  editorial  work,  his  law  practice  and  his  real  estate 
operations.  He  worked  even  harder,  if  possible,  so 
that  his  thoughts  could  not  stray  to  his  loss.  It  was 
during  these  years  that  he  learned  five  languages  by 
studying  on  the  train  to  and  from  his  office  and  his 
home. 

But  zest  in  his  many  activities  was  largely  gone. 
The  lonely  man  needed  something  beyond  these  to 
satisfy.  As  in  the  Big  Shanty  Hospital  at  Marietta 
after  his  injury  in  the  Battle  of  Kenesaw,  the  death 
angel  roused  him  to  look  into  her  world — the  world  of 
the  unseen,  she  again  urged  him  to  seek  the  things  of 
the  spirit.  This  time  the  call  reached  depths  unsounded 
before  and  he  sought  to  know  eternal  life  and  the  gov- 
erning power  of  the  universe  more  earnestly  than  when 
he  was  converted. 

Anything  that  concerned  the  Bible  and  Bible  people 
attracted  Colonel  Conwell  now.  He  gathered  a  valu- 
able theological  library,  sending  to  Germany  for  a 
number  of  the  books.  WTien  he  was  admitted  to 
practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  he 
deUvered  an  address  that  same  evening  in  Washington 
on  ^'The  Curriculum  of  the  School  of  the  Prophets  in 
Ancient  Israel."  From  all  parts  of  the  Old  World  he 
collected  photographs  of  ancient  manuscripts  and 
sacred  places,  and  kept  up  a  correspondence  with  many 
professors  and  explorers  who  were  interested  in  these 


168     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

subjects.  He  lectured  in  schools  and  colleges  on  archae- 
ological subjects  with  illustrations  prepared  by  himself. 
He  also  began  lay  preaching  and  spoke  to  sailors  on 
the  wharves,  to  idlers  in  the  streets,  and  at  little  strag- 
gling missions  where  help  was  needed. 

Gradually,  through  his  speaking  and  teaching  and 
studying,  the  true  understanding  of  what  it  meant  to 
be  a  minister  of  Christ  came  to  him.  The  misconcep- 
tions and  narrow  views  of  his  boyhood  days  regarding 
the  profession  dropped  away  and  the  joy  of  the  work, 
its  great  value,  and  the  world ^s  need  of  workers  in  this 
field  began  to  dawn  upon  him. 

While  engaged  in  evangelical  labors  Colonel  Con- 
well  met  Miss  Sarah  Sanborn,  of  a  wealthy  and  influ- 
ential family  of  Newton  Centre.  She  was  an  active 
worker  in  mission  and  church  circles;  a  woman  of 
culture,  refinement,  force  of  character  and  executive 
ability,  and  widely  interested  in  rehgious  affairs.  They 
met  frequently  in  religious  w^ork.  Their  common  inter- 
est in  such  activities  drew  them  together  and,  in  1874, 
they  were  married. 

After  his  marriage  Colonel  Conwell  removed  to 
Newton  Centre,  the  seat  of  the  Newton  Theological 
Seminary.  His  new  home  was  but  a  few  blocks  from 
the  Seminary  buildings.  Mrs.  Conwell  already  had 
many  friends  among  the  professors,  and  Conwell  was  at 
once  thrown  intimately  into  the  atmosphere  of  theo- 
logical study  and  discussion. 

This  brought  to  his  attention  and  thought  another 
side  of  the  ministry.  He  thus  obtained,  through  the 
actual  work  he  was  doing  in  lay  preaching  and  teaching, 
and  through  the  theological  atmosphere  into  which  he 
was  now  brought — a  view  of  the  profession  as  a  whole. 
He  could  see  the  work  from  all  sides. 

As  Colonel  Conwell  meditated  upon  the  need  of 


HIS  ENTRY  INTO   THE  MINISTRY  169 

religion  in  men's  lives  and  the  effects  it  produced  there, 
the  struggles  of  a  little  Baptist  church  in  Lexington 
to  prolong  its  existence,  suddenly  cleared  his  vision  as 
to  his  course.  He  saw  what  his  true  work  was  and 
decided  to  enter  the  ministry.  He  closed  his  law 
office,  gave  up  his  real  estate  business,  and  offered  his 
services  as  preacher  to  the  little  church  in  Lexington. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

His  First  Pastorate 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  Why  He  did  not  Earlier  Enter 
the  Ministry.  His  Advice  upon  Choosing  a  Life- 
TV  or  k.  The  Condition  of  the  Church  at  Lexington. 
The  First  Service.  Building  a  New  Church.  His 
First  Church  Fair.  The  Activities  and  Growth  of  the 
Lexington  Church.  His  Help  in  Developing  Lexing- 
ton.    His  Ordination.     The  Call  to  Philadelphia. 

THE  relinquishment  of  a  good  law  practice  and  a 
successful  real  estate  business  to  take  the  pastor- 
ate of  a  church  that  was  on  the  verge  of  ruin 
seemed  an  act   of    folly  to  Colonel  Conwell's 
worldy-minded  friends.     Speaking  of  Conwell's  decision 
and  his  quick  action,  Mr.  Hayden,  his  brother-in-law, 
said: 

''My  wife  and  I  were  in  New  York  at  the  time  on  a 
brief  visit.  We  returned  to  Boston  by  boat  and,  as  I 
wished  to  see  Conwell  about  something,  I  went  immedi- 
ately to  his  law  offices  in  Tremont  Temple,  only  to  find 
them  closed  and  to  learn  of  the  change  he  had  made. 
I  was  dumfounded."  That  was  the  way  many  of  his 
friends  and  relatives  regarded  his  action.  But  he  him- 
self viewed  the  change  in  no  such  light. 

When  questioned  about  the  matter  in  later  years, 
Doctor  Conwell  said  with  a  happy  smile,  ''I  knew  I  had 
found  my  work.  I  was  perfectly  satisfied.  I  have 
never  had  any  disposition  to  change  it,  to  do  anything 
else.  Before  that,  I  was  always  changing.  I  was  rest- 
less.    Though  I  was  busy;    though  I  was  what  the 

(170) 


HIS   FIRST  PASTORATE  171 

world  would  call  successful,  I  wasn't  satisfied.  From 
the  moment  I  decided  on  this  work,  I  was  contented 
and  happy.  I  felt  a  great  satisfaction  that  cannot  be 
described  in  words. 

^'Had  I  known  what  the  ministry  meant,  I  would 
undoubtedly  have  gone  into  it  sooner.  I  always  had 
a  pulling  that  way  but  fought  against  it,  for  my  idea 
of  the  work  was  formed  from  my  childhood  experiences ; 
from  gloomy,  harsh  sermons  I  had  heard  as  a  child, 
from  the  torture  I  suffered  in  church  when  I  could  not 
keep  awake  and  I  knew  I  would  be  whipped  if  I  didn't. 
All  these  things  meant  to  me  the  church  and  church 
work,  and  I  could  not  force  myself  to  inflict  anything 
of  that  sort  on  others.  It  took  me  a  long  time  to  find 
out  that  one  could  be  independent  of  such  methods. 

^'I  remember,  as  a  boy,  an  old  preacher  who  was 
always  asking  me,  ^How  is  your  soul?'  As  I  had  an 
inner  conviction  that  it  was  not  altogether  commend- 
able in  his  sight,  I  was  eternally  seeing  it  flying  off  to 
some  region  of  eternal  woe — not,  I  must  confess,  a 
pleasant  thought  to  entertain  continually.  The  uneasi- 
ness it  gave  me,  I  somehow  blamed  upon  the  ministry. 

''I  remember  another  incident  of  my  boyhood  that 
set  me  against  the  ministry.  Our  minister  was  given 
a  donation  party,  and  sixteen  dollars  was  collected  and 
presented  to  him.  But  the  expense  of  feeding  the 
horses  of  those  who  came,  and  the  cost  of  repairing  the 
furniture  that  was  broken  during  the  evening's  hilarity, 
was  greater  than  this  amount.  Such  things  made  the 
ministry  seem  foolish  and  futile  and  lacking  in  good 
sense.  I  could  not  see  any  connection  between  it  and 
purposeful  living.  Yet  I  always  had  the  desire — as  I 
think  most  men  have — to  do  good;  to  be  of  use  to 
others;  and  to  make  my  life  worth  while.  Had  I 
reaUzed  that  these  were  the  foundation  principles  of 


172     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  ministry,  I  would  have  entered  it  sooner.  But  my 
early  ideas  of  a  minister's  life  and  work  and  accomplish- 
ment held  me  in  a  spell  which  I  could  not  shake  off  for 
many  years."  At  another  time  Doctor  Conwell  said, 
in  reference  to  this  sudden  and  decided  change  in  his 
life: 

^'I  have  been  often  asked  how  I  came  to  choose  my 
life's  work,  as  though  it  were  a  matter  of  my  own  selec- 
tion, instead  of  a  case  of  being  forced  to  do  that  which 
I  did  not  like.  But  the  feeling  within  my  soul  that  I 
ought  to  preach  the  Gospel  was  never  fully  out  of  my 
heart,  after  the  days  when  my  mother  insisted  that  I 
should  be  a  preacher  and  told  all  the  neighbors  who 
came  to  our  house  of  her  great  ambition  for  me. 

''That  feeling  would  often  rise  to  a  very  strong  desire, 
and  I  seldom  ever  listened  to  a  religious  address  or  a 
fine  sermon  without  feeling  conscience-stricken  and 
often  half  inclined  to  throw  away  everything  and  enter 
upon  the  humble  service  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
But  I  tried  to  destroy  that  feeling,  or  at  least  bury  it 
by  taking  hold  of  other  things  and  putting  my  whole 
mind  and  time  into  them. 

''I  studied  law  while  in  the  army,  and  paced  the 
beach  many  weeks  at  Fort  Macon,  in  North  Carolina, 
memorizing  the  entire  works  of  Blackstone.  I  thought 
I  had  at  least  conquered  my  previous  inclination 
toward  the  ministry,  and  that  I  should  be  contented  as 
a  lawyer.  But  my  practice  was  much  broken  at  first 
by  the  failure  of  my  health,  due  to  my  army  wounds, 
and  I  was  forcibly  thrust  into  newspaper  writing  by 
the  necessity  of  earning  a  living  and  traveling  for  my 
health. 

''One  of  the  first  law  cases  which  came  to  me  after 
the  opening  of  my  law  office  in  Minneapolis,  Minnesota, 
in  1866,  compelled  me  to  take  possession  of  a  printing 


V 


RUSSELL    H.    CONWELL    WHEN    HE    ENTERED    THE    MINISTRY 

At  the  Age  of  Thirty-seven 


HIS  FIRST  PASTORATE  173 

establishment  connected  with  a  weekly  newspaper 
which  had  failed.  That  led  to  a  financial  interest  in  ^ 
the  Minneapolis  Chronicle,  which  Colonel  Stevens  per- 
suaded me  to  undertake,  and  afterward  led  to  the 
establishment  of  ConwelVs  Star  of  the  North,  a  weekly 
paper  later  merged  into  the  present  Minneapolis 
Tribune.  Then,  for  several  years,  I  traveled  around  the 
world,  making  a  complete  circuit  of  the  earth  for  the 
New  York  Tribune,  the  Boston  Traveller  and  my  own 
Minneapolis  newspaper. 

^'But  I  always  kept  up  the  ambition  to  return  to  the 
practice  of  law,  which  I  did  when  I  recovered  my  health, 
opening  one  office  in  Somerville,  Massachusetts,  and 
another  in  Boston.  There  I  practiced  law,  speculated 
in  real  estate,  entered  into  active  politics,  and  began 
the  publication  of  the  Somerville  Journal.  All  the  time 
these  various  matters  were  being  used  by  me  to  keep 
out  of  mind  that  mysterious  call  of  the  spirit  to  preach 
the  Gospel. 

*' Unexpected  and  probably  undeserved  success  came 
to  my  law  practice  in  Boston  through  accident  and  the 
kindness  of  friends,  so  that  I  seemed  to  be  prospering 
beyond  my  highest  hopes,  when,  among  my  clients 
there  came  a  young  widow — Mrs.  Barrett  of  Lexington, 
Massachusetts — who  consulted  me  as  to  what  could 
be  done  with  the  property  of  an  old  Baptist  church  in  ^ 
Lexington,  which  had  been  practically  abandoned. 

^'I  had  been  continuously  lecturing  in  the  lyceums 
and  speaking  on  the  Sabbath  to  Sunday-school  con- 
ventions and  anniversaries,  so  that  I  was  not  out  of 
touch  with  religious  life  and  work.  I  had  also  organized 
a  large  Bible  class  of  nearly  eight  hundred  members  in 
the  Tremont  Temple  Church  in  Boston,  of  which  I  was 
a  member.  My  advice  as  a  lawyer  to  Mrs.  Barrett 
was  that  they  should  sell  the  property  and  turn  the 


174     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

proceeds  over  to  the  State  Convention  for  the  general  use 
of  the  Baptist  denomination.  But  the  first  little  gather- 
ing which  I  attended  in  Lexington  was  such  a  sad 
occasion  that  we  could  not  get  the  few  old  people,  who 
loved  the  place  so  much,  to  do  anything  about  selling  the 
property;  and  Mrs.  Barrett  suggested  that  I  should  go 
to  Lexington  the  following  Sunday  and  give  an  address 
to  such  people  as  might  come  to  the  old  building. 

^'The  address,  which  I  delivered  there  the  next  Sun- 
day, was  attended  by  very  few  people  and  it  would  not 
have  been  safe  for  more  persons  to  have  stood  upon 
the  dangerous  floor.  But  it  was  an  occasion  when  all 
the  old-time  desire  arose  in  full  power  within  me,  and 
my  conscience  resumed  complete  control  of  my  actions. 
I  resolved  that  night — after  hours  of  struggle  with 
myself  and  prayer  to  my  Lord — to  at  last  dedicate 
myself  to  the  cause  which  I  should  have  adopted  years 
before.  I  was  then  thirty-seven  years  of  age  and 
settled  in  a  profession  in  a  large  city,  with  prospects 
of  wealth  and  success,  which  were  very  attractive;  but 
I  felt,  'Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not  the  Gospel,^  and  I 
dared  not  disobey  that  divine  call. 

^'My  family  were  greatly  surprised,  my  relatives 
were  indignant,  and  even  the  church  members  thought 
me  to  be  unbalanced  in  mind  to  do  so  wild  a  thing  as  to 
launch  out  from  my  settled  and  successful  life  into  the 
uncertainties  of  poverty  and  failure,  which  seemed  all 
there  was  before  me  in  the  life  of  a  preacher.  But  I 
surrendered  all  and  kept  on  amid  the  scoffs  and 
reproaches  of  my  best  friends.  And  while  I  have  seen 
hours  of  trial;  met  sore  defeats;  been  wounded  by 
jealousies;  injured  by  misunderstandings;  yet,  as  I 
look  back  upon  life  now,  I  cannot  see  that  I  ever  suffered 
greater  hardships  than  I  had  expected. 

''Instead  of  those  expected  privations,  I  have  been 


HIS  FIRST  PASTORATE  175 

especially  blessed.  The  Lord  has  sent  to  me  successes 
beyond  my  highest  expectations,  and  I  have  had  friends 
and  comforts  which  I  am  sure  I  could  not  have  deserved. 
Not  for  one  moment  since  I  came  to  a  full  decision  to 
follow  the  Lord  in  his  work  have  I  ever  been  sorry  that 
I  made  the  change  and,  although  I  have  not  wealth  nor 
fame,  I  can  lay  down  my  armor  now  with  a  feeling 
that  I  have  succeeded  more  than  I  had  ever  hoped  or 
expected. 

''I  have  seen  so  many  men,  who  have  worked  much 
harder,  made  more  sacrifices,  and  had  more  talent,  who 
have  fallen  in  the  rear  and  sunk  into  oblivion,  that  I 
cannot  take  to  myself  any  pride;  nor  am  I  willing  to 
accept  these  results  as  more  than  accidental.  But  I  would 
have  my  friends — as  I  would  myself — give  the  glory  or 
the  honor  to  the  Great  Power  which  has  designs  of  His 
own  and  who  promotes  those  whom  He  will  or  keeps  in 
obscurity  those  who  may  serve  Him  best. 

''No  one  in  the  service  of  the  Lord  can  say  that  he  is 
in  the  wrong  place — no  matter  where  he  may  be  situ- 
ated— if  his  conscience  does  not  tell  him  that  he  him- 
self has  entered  into  conscious  sin.  Defeats  are  often 
the  greatest  victories;  and  the  Lord  may  use  most 
those  who  seem  to  be — from  a  human  point  of  view — 
of  the  least  account.  It  is  absolutely  impossible  for 
any  servant  of  God  to  tell  in  this  life  whether  his  efforts 
are  going  to  be  of  future  avail,  or  whether  his  losses  may 
not  after  all  be  of  more  account  in  the  future  Kingdom 
than  the  gains  of  the  great." 

This  first  service  at  which  Colonel  Conwell  preached 
is  often  recalled  by  the  members  of  the  Lexington 
church.  ''When  we  heard  that  Colonel  Conwell  was 
coming  to  preach,"  said  one  of  these  members,  in 
describing  his  work  in  Lexington  "we  felt  that  we  must 
get  together  an  audience  for  him.     We  scoured  the 


176     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

town  to  induce  people  to  come,  and  succeeded  in  secur- 
ing eighteen  to  attend  his  first  service.  But  after  that 
first  service  we  did  not  need  to  do  any  missionary  work. 
People  came  of  their  own  account.  Soon  they  could 
not  be  accommodated  in  the  church  and  they  stood  out- 
side on  the  pavement.  Colonel  Conwell  is  not  limited 
for  lung  power,  though^  so  they  all  heard  him.'^ 

The  church  building  in  which  the  services  were  held 
was  in  a  dilapidated  condition,  and  the  steps  leading 
up  to  it  were  really  dangerous.  The  structure  was 
heated  by  a  stove  ''which,"  one  of  the  members  said, 
''the  janitor  always  insisted  upon  shaking  down  in  the 
middle  of  the  service."  A  small  melodeon  was  the 
musical  instrument.  For  this  first  service,  in  addition 
to  securing  a  congregation,  the  interest  of  some  of  the 
music  lovers  of  Lexington  was  also  enlisted. 

"I  went  to  some  of  my  Unitarian  friends  who  sang," 
said  one  of  the  workers,  "and  asked  them  if  they  would 
not  come  and  sing  for  us.  They  agreed,  and  so  we  were 
able  to  have  a  quartet  for  that  first  service." 

One  can  feel  the  anxiety  of  the  few  devoted  members 
left,  who  had  the  welfare  of  the  church  at  heart,  for 
that  first  service.  Could  they  have  glimpsed  the 
future  they  would  not  have  been  anxious.  As  has  been 
said,  that  first  service  was  electrical.  The  second  Sun- 
day saw  the  place  dangerously  crowded.  The  building 
was  thronged,  and  people  stood  upon  the  sidewalk  at 
both  morning  and  evening  service.  Lexington  realized 
that  the  church  had  come  to  life,  and  there  was  some- 
thing so  vital  in  this  new  life  that  the  town  was  stirred. 
But  it  was  not  mere  curiosity  that  attracted  the  people. 
It  was  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  was  being  given  to  them  in  a  form  that  practically 
and  helpfully  entered  into  their  lives,  and  they  were 
eager  for  it. 


HIS  FIRST  PASTORATE  177 

The  crowds  and  the  interest  shown  pointed  out  to 
Conwell  the  need  of  a  larger  building,  but  he  felt  that 
it  would  be  useless  to  say  anything  upon  the  subject 
to  the  present  members.  How  could  he  ask  a  congre- 
gation, whose  previous  attendance  fell  at  times  as  low 
as  five  or  six,  and  whose  former  collections — though 
the  members  gave  nobly  and  self-sacrificingly — were 
usually  less  than  a  dollar  on  Sunday,  and  in  whose 
treasury  at  his  coming  was  but  a  dollar  and  a  half,^ 
to  erect  a  new  church  building?  Indeed,  the  treasurer 
of  the  church  said  laughingly,  in  regard  to  the  dollar 
and  a  half  that  was  on  hand:  ''We  were  so  thankful 
that  in  his  letter  saying  he  would  come  and  preach  that 
first  Sunday,  he  wrote,  'I  will  take  no  pay,'  for  we 
needed  that  dollar  and  a  half  to  fix  the  door  latch." 

Surely  never  was  the  outlook  for  building  a  church 
more  hopeless.  But  Colonel  Conwell  is  not  a  man  to 
give  much  time  to  viewing  the  obstacles  in  his  path. 
It  is  the  need  to  which  he  gives  the  most  of  his  attention 
and,  if  this  seems  definite  enough,  he  believes  the  very 
fact  of  the  need  implies  a  supply. 

As  he  knew  it  would  be  useless  to  propose  to  the 
church  members  to  build  a  new  church.  Colonel  Con- 
well started  the  work  himself.  Bright  and  early  upon 
the  Monday  morning  after  his  second  Sunday  at  Lex- 
ington, he  appeared  with  saw  and  hammer  and  began 
tearing  away  the  steps  that  had  broken  down  under 
the  pushing  and  stamping  of  the  crowd.  Vigorously  he 
went  to  work.  The  neighborhood  was  aroused  by 
the  sounds  of  blows,  the  rending  of  boards  and  the 
falling  of  timbers.  By  night  the  most  dilapidated  parts 
of  the  old  building  were  gone  and  only  a  fraction  of  the 
original  porch  remained. 

But  more  had  been  done  than  the  tearing  down  of  a 
building.     That  day's  work  had  aroused  Lexington 

19 


178     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  the  whole  town  was  talking  about  it.  For  not 
only  was  the  old  building  almost  razed,  but  a  large 
amount  of  money  had  been  subscribed  toward  a  new  one. 
Every  one  who  had  stopped  and  asked  what  was  going 
on  had  been  told  the  church's  need.  The  first  person 
had  voluntarily  given  one  hundred  dollars.  Others, 
when  told  of  the  gift,  had  added  what  they  could. 
And  when  Colonel  Conwell  laid  down  his  pick  one 
evening  he  had  nearly  five  thousand  dollars  toward  the 
new  edifice. 

''The  church  members  could  not  object  to  building 
a  church  when  I  told  them  how  much  money  I  had 
secured  toward  it, "  he  said,  with  a  twinkle  in  his  eye, 
as  he  recalled  those  days.  ''The  question  was  settled 
without  any  discussion  or  doubt. '^ 

If  Colonel  Conwell's  preaching  had  been  electrical 
in  its  effect  upon  Lexington,  his  method  of  building  a 
new  church  was  even  more  so.  Equally  so  were  the 
other  activities  that  quickly  followed.  While  the 
church  was  being  made  over,  the  services  were  held 
in  the  Town  Hall,  in  which  was  also  held  a  fair  to  raise 
money  for  the  building  fund.  This  fair  was  unlike  any- 
thing of  the  kind  that  had  ever  been  held  before  in 
Lexington. 

The  whole  of  the  Town  Hall  was  used  for  it. 
Upstairs  was  a  restaurant  in  which  meals  were  ready 
at  all  hours.  On  the  balcony  was  an  old-fashioned 
kitchen  in  which  was  served  all  manner  of  old-time 
dishes — cider-apple  sauce,  doughnuts,  baked  beans  and 
other  famous  New  England  delicacies.  When  the 
dinner  was  prepared  a  man  in  the  uniform  of  a  Colonial 
soldier  came  out  on  the  balcony,  blew  a  silver  trumpet, 
announced  that  dinner  was  now  served,  and  read  the 
m^nu. 

Everything  imaginable  in  merchandise  was  on  sale 


HIS  FIRST   PASTORATE  179 

from  farming  tools  to  the  daintiest  of  hand  embroidery. 
Orders  were  taken  for  the  winter's  supply  of  vegetables, 
or  for  coal  or  wood.  iVnything  anybody  needed  was 
furnished  if  possible.  The  only  exception  was  dry- 
goods  by  the  yard.     The  fair  cleared  SI, 600. 

This  event  stirred  the  town  and  the  neighboring 
community  profoundly.  Everyone  was  talking  about 
it  and  the  church  work  it  stood  for.  One  of  the  pleas- 
ing incidents  was  the  action  taken  by  the  Roman 
Catholics  of  the  community.  Sometime  previously  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  of  the  town  had  given  a  supper. 
The  church  did  not  have  enough  dishes  and  tried  to 
borrow  supplies  from  the  various  Protestant  churches 
of  Lexington,  but  without  success.  Finally  application 
was  made  to  Colonel  Conwell  for  whatever  his  church 
might  have.  He  gladly  loaned  the  dishes  at  his  dis- 
posal and,  when  payment  was  offered,  refused  it. 

The  Catholics  were  not  unappreciative  and,  when 
the  fair  for  Conwell's  church  opened,  the  priest  speci- 
ally addressed  his  congregation  in  regard  to  it.  He 
told  them  how  kind  the  Baptist  church  had  been  in 
helping  them  and  said  to  his  parishioners,  ''I  want  you 
to  go  to  that  fair  and  spend  money.  Don't  only  buy  a 
ticket  to  go  in.  But  buy  something  at  the  fair."  As 
the  Roman  Catholic  church  had  a  membership  of  about 
a  thousand,  their  good-will  and  help  had  much  to  do 
with  the  success  of  the  fair. 

A  Young  People's  Society  was  formed,  a  Bible  class 
for  young  men  organized  and  many  entertainments  were 
given.  Activity  was  the  word  and  the  church  was 
thoroughly  alive.  Everyone  connected  with  it  was 
set  to  work  doing  something.  Energy  seemed  to  flow 
from  it  in  many  directions  and  to  reach  many  circles. 

Colonel  Conwell's  method  of  choosing  a  Sunday- 
school  superintendent  is  indicative  of  the  simple  and 


180     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

direct  manner  in  which  he  worked.  His  knowledge  of 
men  told  him  that  a  certain  member  of  the  church 
would  make  a  good  Sunday-school  superintendent,  but 
he  knew  that  the  man  if  asked  would  refuse  from 
timidity  and  self-distrust,  as  he  had  never  filled  any 
public  position. 

Conwell,  however,  knew  the  real  capabilities  of  the 
man  and  that  all  that  was  needed  was  for  the  man  him- 
self to  discover  them.  So  he  arranged  a  little  social 
gathering  of  church  members  at  the  man's  house  and,  at 
the  psychological  moment,  introduced  him  as  the  new 
Sunday-school  superintendent.  Of  course  the  man 
protested ;  but  Colonel  Conwell  held  to  his  point,  agree- 
ing that  he  would  himself  be  on  hand,  if  desired,  to 
make  an  address,  but  that  the  other  could  easily  attend 
to  the  routine  work.  At  last  the  man  agreed,  and  ''he 
made  one  of  the  best  Sunday-school  superintendents 
Lexington  ever  had,"  said  one  of  members  who  had 
been  present  at  the  affair,  in  concluding  her  recital  of 
this  event.  ''Why,  we  no  more  thought  he  would  make 
a  superintendent  than  a  butterfly  would.  But  Mr. 
Conwell  was  right." 

Music  was  an  important  part  of  the  church  services, 
and  it  was  not  long  before  the  church  was  said  to  have 
the  best  music  within  ten  miles  of  Boston.  In  describ- 
ing the  role  music  played  in  the  church  work,  a  member 
said,  "Mr.  Conwell  would  usually  arrive  a  half  hour 
or  so  before  the  service,  and,  seated  at  the  organ,  would 
pla}^  and  sing  and  conduct  a  general  musical  service  in 
which  the  assembling  congregation  joined.  It  brought 
tears  to  every  one's  eyes  to  hear  him  sing  '  Where  is  my 
wandering  boy  tonight?'" 

The  finances  of  the  church  improved  immediately,  as 
collections  increased  from  a  few  dollars  to  an  average  of 
about  eighty  dollars  a  Sunday.     Not  only  did  the  fairs 


HIS   FIRST  PASTORATE  181 

and  entertainments  bring  in  considerable  money  for 
the  work  going  forward,  but  individually  the  people 
of  Lexington  gave  generously.  In  speaking  of  the 
liberal  financial  support  received,  a  member  of  the 
church  said  that  a  friend  had  remarked  to  him,  apropos 
of  the  financial  record  the  church  was  making,  ''If  any- 
body had  asked  me  two  years  ago,  'How  much  can 
these  Baptists  raise,  I  would  have  said  six  cents.  I 
would  not  even  have  made  it  six  and  a  quarter.'" 
In  the  eighteen  months  Colonel  Conwell  was  there 
the  church  raised  $8,000. 

He  lived  at  Newton  Center — ten  miles  distant — and 
drove  to  Lexington.  On  one  of  these  trips  he  lost  his 
necktie,  and  his  little  daughter  Nima  who  was  with 
him  was  quite  horrified  at  the  thought  of  her  father 
preaching  without  a  necktie.  But  such  triviahties  did 
not  bother  him.  At  another  time  the  horse  ran  away, 
and  he  was  thrown  and  sprained  his  ankle;  but  he 
limped  into  the  pulpit  on  an  improvised  crutch.  In 
the  winter  he  often  had  to  shovel  his  way  through 
snowdrifts;  yet  such  things  did  not  deter  him.  Love 
for  the  work  so  filled  him  that  anything  extraneous  to  it 
did  not  count. 

Nor  did  Colonel  Conwell  confine  himself  solely  to 
routine  church  services  or  activities.  The  spirit  of 
religion  he  believed  should  pervade  all  of  life's  enter- 
prises, and  so  he  entered  sympathetically  and  heartily 
into  all  the  interests  of  Lexington.  He  was  as  ready 
to  help  any  person  or  any  interest  of  the  town  as  he  was 
those  under  his  immediate  charge.  His  earnest  desire 
to  be  of  service  to  his  fellow-men  was  not  bounded  by 
creed  or  class. 

In  one  section  of  Lexington  was  a  somewhat  rough 
element.  It  was  Pastor  ConwelFs  wish  to  reach  these 
people.    One  night  in  passing  through  the  streets  of  this 


182     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

district,  he  met  a  crowd  of  boisterous  young  men 
singing  on  the  corner.  He  approached  them;  said 
a  few  words  in  praise  of  their  singing,  and  then 
remarked,  ''Come  up  and  sing  for  me  at  the  church. 
Your  voices  are  just  what  I  want.  Bring  your  friends 
if  you  want  to." 

His  invitation  was  met  with  scoffing  and  jeers,  but  he 
persisted,  and  finally  persuaded  them  to  come.  They 
were  at  the  next  service  and  became  regular  attendants. 
Many  of  them  reformed  and  became  respectable  and 
useful  members  of  the  community. 

Colonel  Conwell  also  did  much  other  personal  work. 
It  is  told  in  Lexington  how  he  sat  up  night  after  night 
^  with  a  man  well-known  and  liked,  but  addicted  to 
alcoholism,  to  prevent  him  from  going  out  and  becom- 
ing intoxicated.  In  the  business  life  of  Lexington 
he  became  an  important  factor.  He  was  a  keen 
business  man  as  well  as  a  preacher  and  had 
been  interested — both  in  Minneapolis  and  in  Boston 
— in  building  up  communities.  He  saw  business 
possibilities  in  Lexington  which  had  not  been  made 
the  most  of,  so  he  undertook  to  develop  the  town 
commercially. 

At  ConwelFs  invitation  the  Governor  of  the  State, 
Honorable  John  D.  Long,  visited  the  place.  Large 
business  enterprises  were  started  and  strongly  sup- 
ported by  the  townspeople.  From  the  date  of  Colonel 
Conwell's  installment  as  pastor,  the  town  took  on  a 
new  lease  of  life.  He  showed  them  what  could  be  done 
and  encouraged  them  to  do  it.  Strangers  were  wel- 
comed to  the  town,  and  its  unusual  beauty  became  a 
topic  of  conversation.  The  railroad  managers  heard 
of  its  attractiveness  and  provided  better  acconunoda- 
tions  for  travelers.  Conwell  himself  had  printed  and 
distributed  the  following  card : 


HIS  FIRST  PASTORATE  183 


THE  HILLS  AND   VALLEYS  OF  LEXINGTON 

Are  now  open  for  the  residence  of  business  men,  and 
the  advantages  of  the  town  may  be  briefly  stated  as  follows : 
First,  official  statistics  show  it  to  be  one  of  the  healthiest 
locaHties  in  the  State;  Second,  its  lands  are  nearly  three 
hundred  feet  above  the  sea  level;  Third,  the  water  is  so 
pure,  that  an  analysis  of  some  of  the  springs  show  but  a 
trace  of  difference  between  them  and  the  celebrated  Poland 
Springs,  said  to  be  so  valuable  in  kidney  diseases;  Fourth, 
the  location  is  away  from  the  piercing  east  winds,  although 
only  ten  miles  from  Boston;  Fifth,  there  are  eleven  trains 
each  way  every  week-day  and  more  will  soon  be  put  on  the 
road;  Sixth,  it  is  an  historic  town,  known  over  the  whole 
civilized  world;  Seventh,  its  houses  and  lands  and  farms 
are  valuable  and  so  cheap  that  every  citizen  can  afford  to 
have  at  least  a  large  garden  tract;  Eighth,  the  people  are 
descendants  of  old  New  England  stock,  enterprising,  indus- 
trious, social,  cultured  and  intelligent;  Ninth,  its  schools 
are  not  excelled  by  those  of  any  other  town  in  the  State; 
Tenth,  its  public  library,  its  gas  company,  its  local  stores, 
markets,  etc.,  are  now  fully  equal  to  the  demand  of  the  time; 
Eleventh,  there  are  four  religious  denominations  having 
houses  of  worship — Unitarian,  Orthodox-Congregational, 
Catholic,  and  Baptist. 

The  writer  of  this  card  has  no  financial  interest  whatever 
in  the  sale  of  any  real  estate  or  other  property,  but  will  gladly 
answer  any  inquiries  about  the  town  or  its  places  of  resi- 
dence, either  personally  or  by  mail. 

RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL, 

Room  B,  Tremont  Temple. 
March,  1881. 


184     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

One  of  the  town  officers  writing  at  that  time  says: 
''Lexington  can  never  forget  the  benefit  Mr.  Con  well 
conferred  during  his  stay  in  the  community. '^ 

The  beginning  of  all  this  work  Colonel  Conwell  did 
before  he  was  ordained,  as  he  merely  had  a  license  to 
preach.  When  he  made  the  definite  decision  to  enter 
the  ministry,  he  immediately  enrolled  at  Newton  Theo- 
logical Seminary  and  pursued  his  studies  there  during 
the  busy  days  of  preaching  and  building  at  Lexington. 

Russell  Conwell  was  ordained  in  the  year  1879.  The 
council  of  churches  called  for  his  ordination  met  in 
Lexington  and  President  Alvah  Hovey,  of  Newton  Sem- 
inary, presided.  Among  the  members  of  the  council 
was  his  life-long  friend,  George  W.  Chipman,  of  Boston 
— the  same  good  deacon  who  had  taken  him,  a  runaway 
boy,  into  the  Sunday-school  of  Tremont  Temple.  The 
only  objection  to  the  ordination  was  made  by  one  of 
the  pastors  present  who  said,  ''Good  lawyers  are  too 
scarce  to  be  spoiled  by  making  ministers  of  them." 
:  For  a  year  and  a  half  he  thus  labored.  A  new  church 
was  built.  The  Baptists  of  Lexington  were  working 
with  an  enthusiasm  and  a  consecration  they  had  not 
experienced  for  years.  The  town  itself  was  stirred  to 
new  life,  new  activities.  Then  a  call  came  to  larger 
work.  He  resigned  the  pastorate  at  Lexington  to 
come  to  Philadelphia  to  enter  upon  what  has  proven  to 
be  his  great  life  work — a  work  which  has  benefited 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  the  people  of  this  country. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

The  Early  Days  of  the  Philadelphia 
Pastorate 

The  Beginning  of  Grace  Baptist  Church.  A  Letter 
Describing  a  Church  Service,  John  Wanamaker^a 
Tribute  to  Doctor  ConweWs  ^^ Different^*  Methods. 
The  Growth  of  the  Church. 

THE  church  in  Philadelphia  to  which  Russell 
Conwell  came  was,  in  a  sense,  in  almost  as  sore 
straits  as  the  one  to  which  he  had  gone  in 
Lexington.  It  was  started  in  1870  as  a  Httle 
mission  in  a  rapidly  developing  section  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  city.  A  number  of  young  men  from  the 
Tenth  Baptist  Church,  seeing  the  need  for  religious 
services  in  this  district,  secured  a  hall  at  Twelfth 
Street  and  Montgomery  Avenue  and  began  holding 
meetings. 

The  work  prospered  and  finally  a  clergyman  was 
employed  to  take  full  charge.  Under  his  ministry  the 
mission  became  still  more  successful.  In  1872,  evan- 
gelistic services  were  held  which  brought  a  large  increase 
in  the  membership.  It  was  then  decided  to  form  an 
independent  church;  and  Grace  Baptist  Church  was 
formally  organized,  February  12,  1872,  with  forty-seven 
members. 

The  membership  soon  outgrew  the  accommodations 
of  the  hall,  and  steps  were  taken  to  secure  larger  quar- 
ters. A  lot  was  purchased  at  Berks  and  Mervine 
Streets  and  a  tent,  with  a  seating  capacity  of  five 
hundred  was  erected.  This  was  the  first  ''church 
home"  of  the  members  of  Grace  Baptist  Church. 

(185) 


186     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

But  the  little  church  was  growing  rapidly  in  members. 
Soon  the  tent  could  no  longer  accommodate  those  who 
wished  to  attend,  and  the  problem  of  erecting  a  church 
building  confronted  the  band  of  workers.  This  step 
was  finally  decided  upon.  The  tent  was  moved  to  a 
neighboring  lot,  where  it  was  used  for  mission  work, 
after  the  church  services  in  it  were  discontinued.  Home- 
less wanderers  were  given  food  and  shelter  in  it,  and 
helped  to  a  useful  life.  From  this  work  grew  the 
Sunday  Breakfast  Association  of  Philadelphia. 

The  edifice  for  Grace  Baptist  Church  went  rapidly 
forward.  In  1875,  the  membership  was  able  to  use  the 
basement  of  the  building.  But  troubled  days  came; 
bills  could  not  be  met;  judgments  were  entered,  and 
finally  the  sheriff  descended  and  foreclosed.  But,  after 
much  persuasion,  the  mortgagor  was  induced  to  wait 
and  the  little  band  of  workers  bent  with  fresh  energy 
to  the  task  of  raising  the  money  and  holding  their 
church  together. 

This  was  the  condition  Russell  Conwell  was  asked  to 
meet  when  the  call  was  made  to  him — an  unfinished 
building  with  a  mortgage  of  $15,000  upon  it.  But 
failure  and  debt  did  not  daunt  him.  He  had  seen  how 
hard  work  and  determination  could  overcome  both. 
The  only  point  to  be  considered  was,  "Did  the  cause 
of  Christneed  his  services  here  more  than  in  Lexington?'' 
This  was  the  only  issue  with  him. 

He  came  to  Philadelphia  and  looked  over  the  field. 
He  quickly  saw  that  a  live  church  could  do  much  good 
in  the  rapidly  developing  section  in  which  this  church 
was  situated.  And  the  earnestness  of  the  church 
members — their  willingness  to  work  and  sacrifice — 
touched  him.  They  were  of  a  spirit  kindred  to  his 
own  and  he  decided  to  accept  the  call. 

To  many  of  those  interested  in  his  welfare,  Russell 


EARLY  PHILADELPHIA  PASTORATE  187 

Conwell's  decision  again  seemed  an  act  of  folly.  To 
relinquish  work  that  was  proving  highly  successful,  and 
which  was  giving  him  an  influential  position  in  the 
community,  in  order  to  take  charge  of  a  church  that 
was  on  the  verge  of  failure,  appeared  to  many  to 
show  an  utter  lack  of  wisdom.  But  worldly  standards 
have  little  weight  with  Doctor  Conwcll.  When  he  is 
once  convinced  there  is  a  work  to  be  done,  he  goes 
ahead  and  does  it. 

His  congregation  in  Lexington  was  loath  to  give  him 
up.  But  when  he  pointed  out  the  precarious  condition 
of  the  Philadelphia  church;  how  the  people  there  were 
saying  what  practically  the  Lexington  congregation 
had  said,  "Help  us  to  save  the  church;"  how  the  church 
at  Lexington  could  go  forward  of  its  own  impetus,  and 
that  in  this  new  field  he  could  be  more  useful,  they 
sorrowfully  acquiesced  in  his  decision. 

"It  was  a  sad  day  in  Lexington,"  said  a  member  of 
that  church,  "when  he  preached  his  farewell  sermon. 
But  we  believed  that  the  church  in  Philadelphia  needed 
him  more  than  we  did,  and  that  he  could  do  a  greater 
work  there  than  he  could  in  Lexington.  And  so  we 
agreed  regretfully  to  his  going." 

Doctor  Conwell  entered  upon  his  duties  on  Thanks- 
giving Day,  1882.  He  at  once  went  to  work  with 
characteristic  energy — preaching,  planning,  organizing 
and  getting  the  people  busy.  He  followed  no  traditions 
or  conventions,  unless  they  could  be  of  use  in  the  work 
he  was  doing.  He  surveyed  the  field  and  studied  the 
people.  Then  he  began  in  the  most  simple,  direct  and 
effective  manner  to  accomplish  what  needed  to  be  done 
with  the  means  at  hand. 

His  sermons  were  simple,  direct,  full  of  homely  illus- 
trations that  stayed  in  the  memory  and  enabled  his 
hearers  to  make  the  spiritual  truths  he  preached  a  part 


188     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

of  their  everyday  life.  (See  Appendix  for  Sermon 
Outlines.)  A  Methodist  minister  from  Albany 
who  happened  to  be  in  Philadelphia  in  the  early 
days  of  Russell  ConwelFs  pastorate,  gave,  in  a  letter 
home,  a  good  description  of  one  of  Doctor  Conwell's 
sermons  and  of  the  entire  service.     He  wrote: 

'^I  arrived  at  the  church  a  full  hour  before  the  eve- 
ning service.  There  was  a  big  crowd  at  the  front  door 
another  at  the  side  entrance.  I  was  determined  to  get 
in,  so  I  waited.  I  was  dreadfully  squeezed,  but  finally 
got  through  the  back  entrance  and  stood  in  the  rear  of 
the  pretty  church.  All  the  camp  chairs  were  already 
taken;  also  the  extra  seats.  The  church  was  rather 
fancifully  frescoed;  but  it  is  an  architectural  gem.  It 
is  half  amphitheatrical  in  design;  is  longer  than  wide; 
and  the  choir  gallery  and  organ  are  over  the  preacher's 
head.  It  looks,  underneath,  like  an  old-fashioned 
sounding  board ;  but  it  is  neat  and  pretty.  The  carpet 
and  cushions  are  bright  red,  and  the  windows  are  full  of 
mottoes  and  designs;  but  in  the  evening,  under  the 
brilliant  lights,  the  figures  could  not  be  clearly  seen. 

''There  was  an  unusual  spirit  of  homeness  about  the 
place,  such  as  I  never  felt  in  a  church  before — I  was  not 
alone  in  feeling  it.  The  moment  I  stood  in  the  audience 
room,  an  agreeable  sense  of  rest  and  pleasure  came 
over  me — and  everyone  else  appeared  to  feel  the  same. 
There  was  none  of  the  stiff  restraint  most  churches 
have.  Everybody  moved  about  and  greeted  each  other 
with  an  ease  that  was  very  pleasant,  indeed.  I  saw 
some  people  abusing  the  liberty  of  the  place  by  whis- 
pering, even  during  the  sermon.  They  may  have  been 
strangers  and  evidently  belonged  to  the  lower  classes. 
But  it  was  a  curiosity  to  notice  the  liberty  everyone  took 
at  a  pause  in  the  service,  and  the  close  attention  there 
was  when  the  reading  or  speaking  began. 


EARLY  PHILADELPHIA  PASTORATE  189 

'^All  the  people  sang.  I  think  Doctor  Con  well  has 
a  strong  liking  for  the  old  hymns.  Of  course  I  noticed 
this  selection  of  Wesley's  favorite.  A  little  boy  in  front  of 
me  stood  upon  the  pew  when  the  congregation  rose  and 
piped  out  in  song  with  all  his  power,  just  like  a  spring 
canary.  It  was  difficult  to  tell  whether  the  strong 
voice  of  the  preacher,  or  the  chorus  choir,  led  most 
in  the  singing.  A  well-dressed  lady  near  me  said, 
'Good  evening'  most  cheerfully,  as  a  polite  usher 
showed  me  into  a  pew.  They  say  that  all  the 
members  do  that.  It  made  me  feel  welcome.  She 
also  gave  me  a  hymn  book.  I  saw  others  thus  kindly 
greeted.  How  it  did  help  me  to  praise  the  Lord! 
At  home  with  the  people  of  God!  That  is  just  how 
I  felt. 

"I  was  greatly  disappointed  in  the  preacher.  Agree- 
ably so,  after  all.  I  expected  to  see  an  old  man  and  he 
did  not  appear  to  be  over  thirty-five.  He  was  awk- 
wardly tall.  I  had  expected  some  eccentric  and 
sensational  affair.  I  do  not  know  just  what,  but  I  had 
been  told  many  strange  things.  I  think  now  it  was 
envious  misrepresentation.  The  whole  service  was  as 
simple  as  simple  can  be — and  it  was  surely  as  sincere 
as  simple.  The  reading  of  the  hymns  was  so  natural 
and  distinct  that  they  had  a  new  meaning  to  me.  The 
prayer  was  very  short,  and  offered  in  homely  language. 
At  its  close  the  minister  paused  a  moment  for  silent 
prayer,  and  every  one  seemed  to  hold  his  breath  in  the 
deepest,  real  reverence.  It  was  so  different  from  my 
expectations. 

''Then  came  the  collection.  It  was  not  an  asking  for 
money  at  all.  The  preacher  put  his  notice  of  it  the 
other  way  about.  He  said,  The  people  who  wish  to 
worship  God  by  giving  their  offering  into  the  trust  of 
the  church  could  place  it  in  the  baskets  which  would  be 


190     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

passed  to  any  one  who  wanted  to  give/  The  basket 
that  went  down  by  me  to  the  altar  was  full  of  money  and 
envelopes.  Yet  no  one  was  asked  to  give  anything. 
It  was  all  voluntary,  and  really  an  offering  to  the 
Lord.  I  had  never  seen  such  a  way  of  doing  things  in  a 
church  collection.  I  do  not  know  if  the  minister  or 
church  require  it  so. 

^'The  church  was  packed  in  every  corner,  and  people 
stood  in  the  aisles.  The  pulpit  platform  was  crowded 
so  that  the  preacher  had  nothing  more  than  standing 
room.  Some  people  sat  on  the  floor,  and  a  crowd  of 
interested  boys  leaned  against  the  pulpit  platform. 
When  the  preacher  arose  to  speak,  I  expected  some- 
thing strange.  It  did  not  seem  possible  that  such  a 
crowd  could  gather  year  after  year,  to  listen  to  mere 
plain  pleaching;  for  these  are  degenerate  days.  The 
minister  began  so  familiarly  and  easily  in  introducing 
his  text  that  he  was  half  through  his  discourse  before 
I  began  to  realize  that  he  was  actually  in  his  sermon. 
It  was  the  plainest  thing  possible.  I  had  often  heard 
of  eloquence  and  poetic  imagination;  but  there  was 
little  of  either,  if  we  think  of  the  old  ideas.  There  was 
close,  continuous  attention.  He  was  surely  in  earnest, 
but  made  no  attempt  at  oratorical  display.  Of  course, 
there  were  exciting  gestures  at  times,  and  lofty  periods ; 
but  it  was  all  so  natural. 

'^\t  one  point  the  whole  audience  burst  into  laughter 
at  a  comic  illustration,  but  the  preacher  went  on 
unconscious  of  it.  It  detracted  nothing  from  the 
solemn  theme.  It  was  what  the  Chautauqua  Herald 
last  year  called  a  'Conwellian  evening.'  It  was  unlike 
anything  I  ever  saw  or  heard.  Yet  it  was  good  to  be 
there.  The  sermon  was  crowded  with  illustrations  and 
evidently  unstudied.  They  say  that  Doctor  Conwell 
never  takes  time  from  bis  many  cares  to  write  a  sermon. 


EARLY  PHILADELPHIA  PASTORATE  191 

That  one  was  surely  spontaneous;  but  it  inspired  the 
audience  to  better  Hves  and  a  higher  faith.  When  he 
suddenly  stopped  and  quickly  seized  a  hymn  book,  the 
audience  drew  a  long  sigh.  At  once  the  people  moved 
about  again  and  looked  at  each  other  and  smiled.  The 
whole  congregation  were  at  one  with  the  preacher. 
There  was  a  low  hum  of  whispering  voices.  But  all  was 
attention  again  when  the  hymn  was  read.  Then  the 
glorious  song!  One  of  the  finest  organists  in  the 
country — a  blind  gentlemen  named  Wood — was  the 
power  behind  the  throne.  The  organ  did  praise  God. 
Every  one  was  carried  on  in  a  flood  of  praise.  It  was 
rich. 

"The  benediction  was  a  continuation  of  the  sermon 
and  a  closing  prayer — all  in  a  single  sentence.  I  have 
never  heard  one  so  unique.  It  fastened  the  evening's 
lesson;  but  was  not  formal.  The  benediction  was  a 
blessing,  indeed.  It  broke  every  rule  of  church  form. 
It  was  a  charming  close,  however.  No  one  but  Doctor 
Conwell  could  do  it.  Probably  no  one  would  try. 
Instantly  at  the  close  of  the  service,  all  the  people 
turned  to  each  other,  shook  hands,  and  entered  into 
familiar  conversation.  Many  spoke  to  me  and  advised 
me  to  come  again.  There  was  no  restraint.  All  was 
homelike  and  happy.     It  was  blessed  to  be  there." 

Both  Russell  Conwell  and  his  work  were  widely  dis- 
cussed, and  often  harshly  criticised.  Many  said  he 
was  sensational;  but  his  critics  were  frequently  those 
who  had  never  heard  him  and  who  drew  their  conclu- 
sions from  the  reports  of  others,  or  from  distorted 
newspaper  accounts.  His  so-called  sensationalism 
consisted  only  in  doing  things  differently  from  the  way 
they  had  been  done. 

Speaking  once  of  the  manner  in  which  people  had 
misunderstood  and  criticised  him,  Doctor  Conwell  said 


192     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

with  a  grim  setting  of  his  jaw:  ''I  do  not  do  reckless 
things.  That  would  be  wrong.  But  when  I  think  I  am 
doing  right,  I  go  ahead,  and  let  people  say  what  they 
will.     I  take  my  stand." 

In  speaking  of  these  early  days,  the  Hon.  John 
Wanamaker,  upon  the  occasion  of  a  celebration  in 
Philadelphia  in  honor  of  Doctor  Conwell's  seventieth 
birthday,  said: 

''Thirty-one  years  ago  a  poor  Baptist  minister,  of 
whom  none  of  us  had  then  heard,  came  to  Philadelphia 
and  took  charge  of  a  little,  struggling  church.  Not 
that  he  was  a  poor  minister,  or  a  poor  Baptist,  but  a 
man  whom  the  world  would  call  financially  poor. 

"When  that  same  man,  then  in  the  early  prime  of 
splendid  manhood,  first  came  to  this  city,  it  did  not 
take  long  for  the  people  to  discover  that  in  some  way 
he  was  different  from  the  average  minister;  and  there 
are  those  in  this  world  to  whose  minds  to  be  'different' 
means  to  be  wrong.  His  brethern  in  the  ministry  of 
all  denominations  looked  upon  him  first  indifferently, 
then  curiously  and  finally  many  of  them  with  suspicion. 

"Why  should  this  man  take  the  trouble  to  do  this 
and  that  and  the  other  thing?  Why  should  he  work 
so  much  harder  than  his  profession  required?  By 
what  magical  art  did  he  seem  to  understand  the  heart 
of  the  conomon  people?  Wise  heads  were  shaking,  and 
it  was  said:  'A  new  broom  sweeps  clean — but  wait 
awhile.  It  won't  last.  He  is  a  sensationalist — a  fad- 
dist!' When  the  Baptist  Temple  was  projected,  there 
were  those  who  called  it  'Conwell's  Folly,'  and  a  theater 
company  joyfully  anticipated  taking  it  for  their  own 
purposes  when  the  inevitable  failure  should  come. 

"Then  we  remember,  when  perhaps  ten  years  had 
passed  away,  hearing  the  story  of  a  white  azalea.  We 
violate  no  confidence,  for  it  was  pubHcly  told  by  a 


EARLY  PHILADELPHIA  PASTORATE  193 

minister  then  prominent  in  the  city,  who  now  has  gone 
to  the  glory  land.  He  confessed  to  having  harbored  a 
full  share  of  the  suspicion  and  envy  which  many  others 
felt  toward  this  'different^  worker,  and  that  he  also  was 
waiting  for  the  failure  which  nearly  all  prophesied. 

''But  one  day  he  was  very  ill,  and  a  beautiful  white 
azalea  came  to  his  bedside.  At  first  he  almost  resented 
it.  Why  did  that  man  send  him  a  flower?  What 
motive  was  back  of  it?  Did  he  intend  to  buy  him  with 
a  present?  Well,  he  wasn't  to  be  bought — that  was  all! 
Nevertheless  he  would  watch  him,  and  watch  him  he  did. 
He  began  to  see  the  motive  of  a  great  Christ-like  life, 
of  which  that  white  flower  was  just  one  expression, 
He  found  Russell  Con  well  doing  little  kindnesses  here 
and  there — to  high  and  low  alike.  He  found  a  great, 
wide,  deep  interest  in  humanity  for  Christ's  sake  such 
as  he  had  found  in  no  other  life,  such  as  he  presently 
longed  for  in  his  own.  And  upon  the  day  of  that  man's 
funeral,  Doctor  Conwell  said,  'I  feel  personally  bereaved, 
for  in  my  Philadelphia  ministry  he  was  one  of  my 
earliest,  dearest,  and  most  sympathetic  friends.' 

''The  same  distrust  to  which  this  brother  freely  con- 
fessed personally,  existed  in  larger  circles  also — just 
because  he  was  different.'  When  he  read  that  Jesus 
went  about,  ^preaching,  teaching  and  heahng.'  Doctor 
Conwell  said,  ;,'That  is  the  model  for  every  organized 
Christian  institution;  preaching  is  not  enough;  there 
must  be  added  teaching  the  ignorant  and  healing  the 
sick.'  Hence  the  night  school  which  has  grown  into  the 
Temple  University,  and  the  Samaritan  Hospital — and 
later  the  adoption  of  the  Garretson  Hospital. 

"When  the  hospital  and  university  first  outgrew  the 
possibiUty  of  his  own  personal  care,  Russell  Conwell 
offered  them  to  his  denomination — and  even  plead 
with  it  to  come  to  his  assistance  in  the  responsibility 

13 


194     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  the  harvest.  Had  his  own  people  recognized  him 
then,  as  they  do  now,  these  organizations  would  have 
undoubtedly  been  great  Baptist  institutions.  But 
God's  plan  was  a  wider  one;  it  was  to  place  these 
institutions  among  the  great  Christian  factors  of 
human  uplift  upon  a  basis  as  broad  as  the  love  of  the 
Father  Himself;  and  today  they  are  so  recognized. 
Considered  in  the  light  of  that  white  azalea's  revelation 
— a  single  act  that  has  been  duplicated  a  million  times 
in  its  outshining  of  an  inward  Christ-like  love  for 
everyone  in  need — this  celebration  takes  on  even 
deeper  significance.'' 

Although  criticised  and  misunderstood,  Russell  Con- 
well  went  ahead.  The  church  was  soon  completed  and 
the  financial  obligations,  as  they  came  due,  were  easily 
met.  The  church  became  an  influence  in  the  commu- 
nity. Not  only  was  the  immediate  neighborhood 
stirred,  but  people  from  all  parts  of  the  city  thronged  to 
hear  him.  He  soon  had  Philadelphia  as  much  aroused  as 
Lexington,  when  he  began  tearing  down  the  old  church 
there.  The  banging  of  hammers  and  ripping  of  saws 
were  not  any  more  disturbing  to  that  sleepy,  old  town 
than  were  Russell  Conwell's  forceful  sermons  and  his 
efficient,  practical  ways  of  going  about  church  work 
to  Philadelphians. 

He  was  a  tireless  worker.  Day  and  night  he  went 
about  the  duties  that  devolved  upon  him.  He  made 
himself  intimately  acquainted  with  the  members  of  his 
church  family  and  entered  sympathetically  into  their 
ambitions  and  interests.  Such  personal  history  as  they 
cared  to  tell  him  was  not  forgotten  and  he  was  ever 
ready  to  advise  and  help.  His  manner  was  so  simple 
and  informal  that  no  one  felt  any  hesitation  in  going 
to  him  for  counsel,  and  the  practical  suggestions  he 
gave — drawn  from  his  own  wide  experience  of  men  and 


EARLY  PHILADELPHIA  PASTORATE  195 

affairs — were  right  to  the  point  in  solving  problems  and 
lifting  burdens. 

The  same  spirit  permeated  the  membership.  The 
church  fairly  radiated  Idndliness,  cheer  and  help. 
Religion  was  not  merely  preached  as  being  able  to  give 
satisfaction  to  hfe;  but  the  fact  was  demonstrated. 
Such  work  of  pastor  and  people  could  not  but  tell.  The 
church  became  more  and  more  crowded.  In  less  than 
a  year — although  the  seating  capacity  was  increased  to 
twelve  hundred — people  stood  throughout  the  services. 
It  finally  became  necessary  to  admit  the  members 
by  tickets  at  the  rear,  as  it  was  almost  impossible  for 
them  to  get  through  the  throngs  of  strangers  at  the 
front.  Upon  request,  cards  of  admission  were  sent 
to  those  who  desired  them. 

This  was  one  of  the  things  for  which  Russell  Con-  ^ 
well  was  much  criticised.  Word  went  about  the  city 
that  admission  to  '^Conwell's  church" — as  it  was  at 
that  time  scofiingly  called  by  some — was  only  by 
ticket ;  and  others  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  one  had  to 
pay  for  these  tickets.  This  is  but  one  illustration  of  the 
misunderstanding  and  criticism  that  first  met  him,  and 
of  how  little  foundation  there  was  for  it.  An^^one 
could  enter  by  the  front  door  who  wished  to  become 
one  of  the  crowd  and  wait;  but  it  was  impossible  for 
members  to  get  through  this  crowd  in  time  to  reach 
their  seats  for  the  beginning  of  the  service.  Always 
many  were  turned  away.  So,  for  the  convenience  of 
the  members  and  strangers,  who  perhaps  could  not 
come  again  if  they  missed  a  certain  service,  tickets 
of  admission  were  instituted.  But  even  these,  though 
they  simplified  the  process  of  entering  the  building, 
did  not  provide  additional  accomjnodations.  la 
greater  and  greater  numbers  were  people  turned  away. 

''I  am  glad,"  Russell  Con  well  once  remarked  to  a 


196     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

friend  ''when  I  get  up  Sunday  morning  and  can  look  out 
of  the  window  and  see  it  snowing,  sleeting  and  raining, 
and  hear  the  wind  shriek  and  howl.  'There,'  I  say, 
'as  I  preach  this  morning,  I  won't  have  to  look  at  people 
patiently  standing  through  the  service,  wherever  there 
is  a  foot  of  standing  room/  '' 

The  membership  rose  from  two  hundred  to  more 
than  five  hundred  within  two  years,  and  the  question 
began  to  shape  itself  in  the  minds  of  the  pastor  and 
people,  *'What  shall  we  do?''  As  a  partial  solution, 
the  proposition  was  made  to  divide  into  three  churches ; 
but  each  section  wanted  Doctor  Conwell  as  pastor, 
so  the  idea  was  abandoned. 

Still  the  membership  grew,  and  the  need  for  larger 
quarters  faced  them  and  could  not  be  evaded.  The  house 
next  door  was  purchased,  which  gave  increased  space 
for  the  work  of  the  Sunday-school  and  the  various 
associations.  But  it  was  a  mere  drop  in  the  bucket. 
Every  room  was  filled  to  overflowing  with  eager  workers 
before  the  ink  was  fairly  dry  on  the  deed  of  transfer. 
Then  into  this  busy  crowd,  wondering  what  should  be 
done,  came  a  little  child,  and  with  one  simple  act  cleared 
the  mist  from  their  eyes  and  pointed  the  way  for  them 
to  go 


CHAPTER  XX 

A  Child^s  Legacy 

The  Beginning  of  the  Building  Fund  of  the  Baptist 
Temple. 

ONE  Sunday  afternoon,  Hattie  Wiatt,  six  years 
old,  came  to  the  church  building  at  Berks  and 
Mervine  Streets  to  attend  Sunday-school. 
But,  large  as  the  Sunday-school  was,  there  was 
not  room  for  even  one  more  tiny  child.  Other  little  girls 
had  been  turned  away  that  day,  and  still  others  on 
Sundays  before.  And  so  she  was  told  there  was  no 
place  for  her. 

It  was  a  bitter  disappointment.  Hattie  did  not  take 
it  as  other  children  had  done ;  sobs  that  came  from  the 
heart  shook  her  as  she  went  home,  and  tears  rolled 
down  her  cheeks  as  she  told  her  mother  that  she  could 
not  go  to  this  Sunday-school  because  there  was  not 
room.  She  dwelt  upon  her  disappointment  all  the 
afternoon  and  when  bedtime  came,  and  she  said  her 
evening  prayer,  she  included  in  it  a  special  petition 
that  a  place  might  be  found  for  her  in  the  Sunday- 
school. 

But  this  was  not  enough.  Doubtless  she  had  heard 
some  word  dropped  about  faith  and  works,  or,  perhaps, 
her  childish  mind  thought  it  out  for  herself.  No  one 
knows  what  led  to  the  resolve;  but  she  arose  in  the 
morning  with  the  determination  to  save  her  pennies 
and  build  a  larger  Sunday-school. 

To  older  persons  it  might  have  seemed  a  big  under- 
taking, but  to  her  simple  faith,  it  did  not  seem  impos- 

(197) 


198     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

sible.  From  her  childish  treasures  she  took  a  little  red 
pocketbook,  and  into  this  she  put  her  pennies.  The 
temptations  that  assailed  Hattie  to  spend  those  pennies, 
none  but  her  own  heart  knew.  But  she  did  not  waver 
in  her  purpose.  Day  by  day  the  little  hoard  increased 
and,  as  she  counted  it,  her  eyes  grew  bright  and  her 
heart  light  at  the  thought  of  the  Sunday-school  that 
was  to  be. 

But  there  were  only  a  few  weeks  of  her  planning, 
hoping  and  saving.  The  little  Temple  builder  fell  ill. 
She  was  sick  but  a  brief  time,  and  then  the  grim  reaper 
knocked  at  the  door  of  the  Wiatt  home  and  bore  the 
unselfish  child  spirit  away.  With  her  dying  breath 
she  told  her  mother  of  her  treasure — told  her  it  was 
for  Grace  Baptist  Church  to  build. 

In  the  little  red  pocketbook  was  just  fifty-seven  cents. 
That  was  her  legacy.  With  swelling  heart.  Doctor 
Con  well  reverently  took  it  and,  with  misty  eyes  and 
broken  voice,  he  told  the  congregation  of  the  little 
one's  gift. 

'^When  we  heard  how  God  had  blessed  us  with  so 
great  an  inheritance,  there  was  silence — the  silence  of 
tears  and  earnest  consecration,"  said  a  member  in 
describing  the  event.  ''We  felt  that  the  corner-stone 
of  the  new  church  was  laid." 


CHAPTER  XXI 

Building  the  Temple 

How  a  Poor  Congregation  Built  One  of  the  Finest 
Church  Edifices  in  the  Country.  Doctor  ConwelVs 
Ideas  as  to  What  a  Church  Edifice  Should  Be  h&s. 
His  Own  Plans  for  The  Temple.  His  Warnings 
Against  the  Perils  of  Success. 

HATTIE  WIATT'S  legacy  settled   the   question 
as  to  what  the  church  should  do  to  relieve  the 
overcrowding.    The  decision  was  made  at  once 
to  build.     But  it  was  no  light  task  that  con- 
fronted the  membership.     They  were  men  and  women 
who  toiled  for  their  daily  bread,  and  there  was  no  one 
among  them  to  aid  by  large  contributions. 

It  may  be  helpful  to  other  struggling  churches  to 
briefly  recount  how  this  church  raised  the  money  to 
build.  Since  they  were  a  people  with  no  one  among 
them  to  give  largely,  and  yet  succeeded  in  building 
one  of  the  largest,  handsomest  and  most  valuable 
church  edifices  in  the  country,  no  other  church  mem- 
bership— no  matter  how  unfavorable  may  seem  the 
prospect  of  success — need  hesitate  to  go  forward  into 
large  work  if  the  need  is  imperative. 

It  was  not  a  question  simply  of  giving.  What  was 
given  had  to  be  saved.  Few  could  give  outright  and 
not  feel  it.  Incomes  for  the  most  part  just  covered 
living  expenses;  and  expenses  had  to  be  cut  down,  if 
incomes  were  to  be  stretched  to  build  the  church.  So 
these  practical  people  put  their  wits  to  work  to  save 
money.       Walking    clubs    were    organized — not    for 

(199) 


200     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

vigorous  cross-country  tramps  in  search  of  pleasure 
and  health — but  with  an  earnest  determination  to  save 
carfare  for  the  building  fund. 

Tired  men,  with  muscles  aching  from  a  hard  day's 
work,  and  women,  weary  with  a  long  day  behind  the 
counter  or  at  the  typewriter,  cheerfully  trudged  home 
and  saved  the  nickels.  Men  ceased  to  smoke  tobacco; 
women  economized  in  dress  and  vacations  in  the  sum- 
mer were  dropped.  Even  the  boys  and  girls  saved  their 
pennies,  as  little  Hattie  Wiatt  had  done — and  the 
money  poured  into  the  treasury  in  astonishing  amounts, 
considering  how  small  was  each  individual  gift.  All  of 
these  sacrifices  helped  to  endear  the  place  to  those  who 
wove  their  hopes  and  prayers  about  it. 

Another  effort  that  brought  splendid  results  was  the 
giving  out  of  little  earthen  jugs  in  the  early  sunamer  to 
be  brought  to  the  ^'harvest  home"  in  September  with 
their  garnerings.  It  was  a  joyous  evening  when  the 
jugs  were  brought  in.  A  supper  was  held  and,  while 
the  church  members  enjoyed  themselves  at  the  tables, 
the  committee  on  the  platform  broke  the  jugs,  counted 
the  money  and  announced  the  amount. 

Innumerable  entertainments  were  held  at  the  church 
and  at  the  homes  of  the  members.  Suppers  were  given 
in  Fairmount  Park  during  the  summer  and  every  worthy 
plan  for  raising  money  that  clever  brains  could  devise 
and  willing  hands  accomplish  was  used  to  swell  the 
building  fund. 

A  fair  was  held  in  one  of  the  largest  halls  of  Philadel- 
phia in  the  central  part  of  the  city.  It  was  as  electrical 
in  thoroughly  awakening  Philadelphia  to  what  this  live 
church  in  the  northern  part  of  the  city  was  doing,  as 
had  been  the  fair  at  Lexington.  As  at  Lexington, 
almost  everything  salable  was  on  hand.  Meals  were 
served  and  orders  were  taken  for  supplies  that  could 


BUILDING  THE  TEMPLE  201 

not  be  handled  at  the  hall.  The  affair  was  planned 
along  business  lines;  conducted  in  a  practical,  sensible 
fashion — and  it  went  with  a  vim.  It  was  visited  by 
thousands  of  people  and  netted  nearly  nine  thousand 
dollars  toward  the  building  fund. 

The  underlying  principle  of  this  effort  in  behalf  of 
the  building  fund  was  to  meet  any  need  that  the  dis- 
cerning eye  of  any  member  could  descry,  or  to  devise 
a  new  way  to  raise  money  that  would  appeal  by  its 
novelty.  The  various  methods  employed  would  prob- 
ably not  serve  now ;  but  the  principle  holds  good  when- 
ever and  wherever  such  work  needs  to  be  done. 

By  all  these  various  channels,  funds  flowed  in,  and 
in  September,  1886,  the  lot  on  which  The  Temple  now 
stands  at  Broad  and  Berks  Streets  was  purchased.  ^ 
The  price  was  $25,000,  but  only  fifty-seven  cents,  little 
Hattie  Wiatt's  legacy,  was  paid  down.  The  beginning 
thus  made,  the  work  for  the  building  fund  was  pushed, 
if  possible,  with  even  greater  vigor.  Ground  was  broken 
for  The  Temple  on  March  27,  1889.  The  corner-stone 
was  laid  on  July  13,  1890,  and  on  the  first  of  March, 
1891,  the  structure  was  occupied  for  worship. 

But  raising  money  and  erecting  a  building  did  not 
stop  the  spiritual  work  of  the  church.  Rather  it 
increased  it.  People  heard  of  the  church  through  the 
fairs  and  various  other  efforts  to  raise  money,  came 
to  the  services — perhaps  out  of  curiosity  at  first — were 
awakened  to  the  needs  of  the  spirit,  and  joined.  Never 
did  the  spiritual  light  of  the  church  burn  more  brightly 
than  in  those  days  of  hard  work  and  self-denial.  The 
membership  steadily  rose  and,  when  Grace  Church 
moved  into  its  new  temple  of  worship,  more  than 
twelve  hundred  members  answered  the  muster  roll. 

The  only  large  amount  received  toward  the  building 
fund  was  a  gift  of  $10,000,  on  condition  that  the  church 


202     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

be  not  dedicated  until  it  was  free  of  debt.  In  a  legal 
sense,  calling  a  building  by  the  name  of  the  congrega- 
tion worshiping  in  it  is  a  dedication,  and  so  the  struc- 
ture, instead  of  being  named  the  Grace  Baptist  Church, 
was  called  the  Baptist  Temple — a  name  which  will 
probably  cling  to  it  as  long  as  one  stone  stands  upon 
another. 

The  first  Sunday  in  The  Temple  was  a  day  long 
remembered  by  its  members.  ''During  the  opening 
exercises,  over  nine  thousand  people  were  present  at 
each  service,"  said  the  Philadelphia  Press  in  describ- 
ing the  event,  ^'The  throng  overflowed  into  the  Lower 
Temple  and  into  the  old  church  building.  The  whole 
neighborhood  was  full  of  the  joyful  members  of  the 
Grace  Baptist  Church,  and  the  very  air  seemed  to 
thrill  with  the  spirit  of  thanksgiving  abroad  that  day. 
All  that  Sabbath — from  sunrise  until  close  to  midnight — 
members  thronged  the  building  with  prayers  of  thank- 
fulness and  praise  welling  up  from  glad  hearts."  Writ- 
ing from  London  several  years  later.  Doctor  Conwell 
voiced  in  words  what  had  been  in  his  mind  when  the 
church  was  planned : 

''I  heard  a  sermon  which  helped  me  greatly.  It  was 
delivered  by  an  old  preacher,  and  the  subject  was,  'This 
God  is  our  God. '  He  described  the  attributes  of  God 
in  glory,  knowledge,  wisdom  and  love,  and  compared 
Him  to  the  gods  that  the  heathens  worship.  He  then 
pressed  upon  us  the  message  that  this  glorious  God  is 
the  Christian's  God,  and  that  with  Him  we  cannot 
want.  It  did  me  so  much  good  and  made  me  long  for 
more  of  God  in  all  my  feelings,  actions  and  influence. 
The  seats  were  hard;  the  back  of  the  pew  hard  and 
high;  the  church  dusty  and  neglected;  yet,  in  spite  of 
ah  the  discomforts,  I  was  blessed.  I  was  sorry  for  the 
preacher  who  had  to  preach  amid  all  those  discomforts, 
and  did  not  wonder  at  the  thin  congregation. 


BUILDING   THE  TEMPLE  203 

*'0h!  it  is  all  wrong  to  make  it  so  unnecessarily  hard 
to  listen  to  the  gospel.  They  ought  for  Jesus'  sake  to 
tear  out  the  old  benches  and  put  in  comfortable  chairs. 
There  was  present  an  air  of  perfunctoriness  and  lack  of 
object,  which  made  the  service  indefinite  and  aimless. 
This  is  a  common  fault.  We  lack  an  object  and  do  not 
aim  at  anything  special  in  our  services.  That,  too,  is 
all  wrong.  Each  h;>Tim,  each  chapter  read,  each  anthem, 
each  prayer,  and  each  sermon  should  have  a  special 
and  appropriate  purpose.  May  the  Lord  help  me — 
after  my  return — to  profit  by  this  day's  lesson." 

No  hard  benches  and  no  air  of  cold  dreariness  marks 
The  Temple.  The  exterior  is  beautiful  and  graceful  in 
design,  and  the  interior  both  cheery  and  homelike  in 
furnishing.  Doctor  Conwell  sketched  the  plans  for 
The  Temple  himself  and  the  building  embodies  his  ideas 
of  what  a  church  edifice  should  be.  These  rough  drafts 
were  given  to  the  architect,  who  drew  them  to  measure- 
ment and  put  them  into  practical  form  for  materializa- 
tion in  stone. 

The  Baptist  Temple  is  of  hewn  stone,  with  a  frontage 
on  Broad  Street  of  one  hundred  and  seven  feet,  a 
depth  on  Berks  Street  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet, 
and  is  ninety  feet  in  height.  On  the  front  is  a  beautiful 
half-rose  window  of  rich  stained  glass;  and  on  the 
Berks  Street  side  there  are  a  number  of  smaller 
memorial  windows,  each  depicting  some  beautiful 
Biblical  scene  or  thought.  Above  the  rose  window  on 
the  front  is  a  small  iron  balcony  upon  which  the  church 
orchestra  and  choir  often  played  sacred  melodies 
and  sang  hymns  on  special  occasions,  such  as  Christmas 
Eve,  New  Year's  Eve  and  Easter,  thus  filling  the  hours 
with  melody  and  delighting  thousands  of  interested 
spectators.  Of  late  years  this  custom  has  been  replaced 
by  a  large  electric  cross  that  can  be  seen  for  miles 
blazing  against  the  midnight  sky. 


204     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

The  auditorium  of  The  Temple  has  the  largest  seat- 
ing capacity  among  Protestant  church  edifices  in  the 
United  States.  Its  original  seating  capacity,  accord-, 
ing  to  the  architect's  plans,  was  forty-two  hundred 
opera  chairs;  but,  to  secure  greater  comfort  and 
safety,  only  thirty-one  hundred  and  thirty-five  chairs 
were  used. 

Under  the  auditorium  and  below  the  level  of  the 
street  is  the  Lower  Temple.  Here,  also,  are  many 
beautiful  stained-glass  windows.  In  this  part  are  the 
Sunday-school  rooms  with  a  seating  capacity  of  two 
thousand.  One  of  these  rooms  also  answers  for  the 
dining-room,  in  which  five  hundred  can  be  seated ;  and 
folding  tables  and  hundreds  of  chairs  are  stowed 
away  in  the  nearby  store  rooms. 

Adjoining  the  dining-room  are  the  rooms  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees;  the  parlors  and  reading-rooms  of 
the  Young  Men's  Association  and  the  Young  Women's 
Association;  and  the  kitchen,  carving-room  and 
cloak-room.  In  pantries  and  cupboards  is  an  outfit  of 
china  and  table  cutlery  sufficient  for  five  hundred 
persons,  and  the  kitchen  is  fully  equipped  with  large 
ranges,  hot-water  cylinders,  sinks  and  drainage  tanks. 
The  annex  beyond  the  kitchen  contains  the  boilers 
and  engines  and  the  electric  light  plant. 

The  steam  heating  of  the  building  is  supplied  by 
four  100-horse-power  boilers.  In  the  engine-room  are 
two  135-horse-power  engines  directly  connected  with 
dynamos  having  a  capacity  of  twenty-five  hundred 
lights,  which  are  controlled  by  a  switchboard  in  this 
room.  The  electrician  is  on  duty  every  day,  giving 
his  entire  time  to  the  management  of  this  plant. 
The  building  is  also  supplied  with  gas,  and  behind 
the  pulpit  is  a  small  closet  containing  a  friction 
wheel,  by  means  of  which,  should  the  electric  light 


BUILDING  THE  TEMPLE  205 

fail  for  any  reason,  every  gas  jet  in  The  Temple  'can 
be  lighted  from  dome  to  basement.  For  cleaning  the 
church  there  has  been  installed  a  vacuum  plant  which 
does  the  work  quickly  and  thoroughly. 

In  the  rear  of  the  auditorium  on  the  street  floor  are 
the  business  offices  of  the  church,  Doctor  Conwell's 
study,  and  the  offices  of  his  secretary,  and  associate 
pastor.  The  offices  are  equipped  with  desks,  filing 
cabinets,  telephones,  speaking  tubes,  and  everything 
necessary  to  conduct  the  business  of  the  church  in  a 
business-like  way. 

The  acoustics  of  the  great  auditorium  are  practi- 
cally perfect.  There  is  probably  no  building  on  this 
continent  with  an  equal  capacity  which  enables  the 
preacher  to  speak  and  the  hearers  to  listen  with  such 
perfect  comfort.  The  weakest  voice  is  carried  to  the 
farthest  auditor,  and  lecturers  who  have  tested  the 
acoustics  of  halls  in  every  state  in  the  Union  speak 
with  praise  and  pleasure  of  The  Temple. 

At  one  time  telephonic  communication  was  installed 
between  the  auditorium  and  the  Samaritan  Hospital 
and  private  homes.  Patients  in  their  beds  and  people 
in  their  homes  could  hear  the  sermon  and  the  music 
of  the  Sunday  services.  In  fact,  a  sermon  was  once 
taken  down  in  shorthand,  in  Newark,  by  this  tele- 
phone service,  which  was  later  discontinued  because  of 
the  cost. 

A  helpful  device  has  been  installed  for  those  of  the 
congregation  who  do  not  hear  well.  In  front  of  the 
desk  on  the  pulpit  is  a  small  apparatus — theaudiphone — 
by  which  the  speaker's  voice  is  carried  to  a  device  in 
certain  seats.  This  device  is  connected  with  an  ear- 
piece and  thus  those  who  otherwise  could  not  hear  are 
enabled  to  enjoy  what  is  said  on  the  platform.  These 
ear  pieces  are  furnished  free  in  the  business  office  of 


20G     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  church  upon  request,  though  many  who  use  them 
regularly  have  their  own. 

Compared  with  other  assembly  rooms  in  this  country, 
the  auditorium  of  The  Temple  is  a  model.  It  seats 
3,135  persons.  The  Academy  of  Music,  Philadelphia, 
seats  2,900;  the  Academy  of  Music,  Brooklyn,  2,433; 
the  Academy  of  Music,  New  York,  2,433;  the  Grand 
Opera  House,  Cincinnati,  2,250;  and  the  Music  Hall, 
Boston,  2,585. 

The  walls  of  the  first  floor  of  the  church  are  finished 
with  glazed  tiles  in  a  soft  pinkish  tint,  that  is  restful 
to  the  eye  and  harmonizes  with  the  furnishings  of  the 
church.  In  each  tile  is  burnt  the  name  of  the  giver  or 
the  name  of  some  one  the  donor  may  desire  to  honor. 
It  was  a  method  of  raising  money  for  the  church  that 
not  only  proved  very  successful  but  very  pleasing  to 
the  membership.  The  tiles  are  substantial  and  are 
substantially^  set  into  the  walls  and  will  remain  while 
the  building  stands. 

But  greater  than  the  building  is  the  spirit  that  per- 
vades it.  The  moment  one  enters  the  vast  auditorium 
with  its  crimson  chairs,  its  cheery  carpet,  its  softly- 
tinted  walls,  one  feels  at  home.  Light  filters  in  through 
rich  windows,  in  memory  of  some  member  gone  before, 
or  of  some  class  or  organization.  Behind  the  pulpit 
stands  the  organ,  its  rich-looking  pipes  rising  pJmost 
to  the  roof.  Everywhere  is  rich,  subdued  coloring — 
not  ostentatious,  but  cheery  and  homelike. 

Large  as  is  the  seating  capacity  of  The  Temple,  when 
it  was  opened  it  could  not  accommodate  the  crowds 
that  thronged  it.  Almost  from  the  first,  overflow 
meetings  were  held  in  the  Lower  Temple,  that  none 
be  turned  away  from  the  House  of  God.  From  five 
hundred  to  two  thousand  people  crowded  these  meet- 
ings in  addition  to  the  large  audience  in  the  main 
auditorium  above. 


BUILDING   THE  TEMPLE  207 

The  Temple  workers  had  come  to  busy  days  and 
large  opportunities.  But  they  accepted  them  with  a 
full  sense  of  their  responsibility  and  prayed  that  they 
might  use  them  worthily.  Their  leader  knew  the 
perils  of  success  and  with  wise  counsel  guided  them 
against  its  insidious  dangers. 

''Ah,  that  is  a  dangerous  hour  in  the  history  of  men 
and  institutions,"  Doctor  Conwell  said,  in  a  sermon 
on  the  ''Danger  of  Success,"  "when  they  become  too 
popular;  when  a  good  cause  becomes  too  much  admired 
or  adored,  so  that  the  man,  or  the  institution,  or  the 
building,  or  the  organization,  receives  an  idolatrous 
worship  from  the  community.  That  is  always  a  danger- 
ous time,  and  small  men  always  go  down,  wrecked  by 
such  dizzy  elevation.  Whenever  a  small  man  is  praised 
he  immediately  loses  his  balance  of  mind  and  ascribes 
to  himself  the  things  which  others  foolishly  express  in 
flattery.  He  esteems  himself  more  than  he  is  and, 
thinking  himself  to  be  something,  he  is  consequently 
nothing. 

"How  dangerous  is  that  point  when  a  man,  or  a 
women,  or  an  enterprise  has  become  accepted  and 
popular!  Then,  of  all  times,  should  a  man  or  the 
society  be  humble.  Then,  of  all  times,  should  they 
beware.  Then,  of  all  times,  the  hosts  of  Satan  are 
marshaled  to  overcome  by  every  possible  insidious 
wile  and  open  warfare.  The  weakest  hour  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  greatest  enterprises  is  apt  to  be  when  they 
seem  to  be — and  their  projectors  think  they  are — 
strongest.  Take  heed  lest  ye  fall  in  the  hour  of  your 
strength.  The  most  powerful  mill  stream  drives  the 
wheel  most  vigorously  just  before  the  flood  sweeps  the 
mill  to  wildest  destruction." 

"The  mission  of  the  church  is  to  save  the  souls  of 
men,"  he  told  his  congregation.      "That  is  its  true 


208     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

mission.  It  is  the  only  mission  of  the  church.  That 
should  be  its  only  thought.  The  moment  any  church 
admits  a  singer  that  does  not  sing  to  save  souls;  the 
moment  a  church  calls  a  pastor  who  does  not  preach 
to  save  souls;  the  moment  a  church  elects  a  deacon 
who  does  not  work  to  save  souls;  the  moment  a  church 
gives  a  supper  or  an  entertainment  of  any  kind  not  for 
the  purpose  of  saving  souls,  it  ceases  in  so  much  to 
be  a  church  and  to  fulfil  the  magnificent  mission  God 
gave  it.  Every  concert,  every  choir  service,  every 
preaching  service,  every  Lord's  Supper,  every  agency 
that  is  used  in  the  church  must  have  the  great  mission 
plainly  before  its  eye.  We  are  here  to  save  souls  of 
dying  sinners.  We  are  here  for  no  other  purpose. 
And  the  mission  of  the  church  being  so  clear,  that  is  the 
only  test  of  a  real  church." 


CHAPTER  XXII 

How  The  Temple  Works 

Doctor  Conwell  Discusses  the  Church  Work  and  Tells 
the  Underlying  Principles  which  He  Believes  should 
Govern.  The  Various  Organizations.  The  Temple 
Fairs  and  their  Purpose.  Doctor  Conwell  Gives  His 
Ideas  of  a  Church  Fair.  The  Various  Entertain- 
ments.   How  they  are  Planned  and  Managed. 

IN  looking  at  this  magnificent  church  building  on 
Broad  Street  and  the  manifold  uplifting  activities 
it  houses;  in  gazing  at  the  great  University  adjoin- 
ing, where  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  men  and 
women  have  broadened  and  made  more  useful  their 
lives,  and  then  glancing  backward  over  the  life  of  Rus- 
sell Conwell,  it  seems  as  if  a  miracle  had  been  wrought — 
a  miracle  that  had  flowered  forth  in  visible  form  in 
these  two  granite  buildings,  and  in  great  buildings  in 
other  parts  of  the  city,  but  more  in  the  invisible  and 
more  potent  expression  in  the  forces  for  good  that 
flow  in  a  never-ceasing  stream  from  them. 

Of  the  work  of  the  church  Doctor  Conwell  himself 
says: 

"Looking  back  over  my  life's  work  with  the  Church 
of  Christ,  all  seems  unreal.  I  cannot  fully  fathom  the 
depths  of  abiding  peace,  nor  understand  the  powers, 
which  have  combined  to  make  my  life  so  happy  and  so 
peaceful  amid  such  a  harvest.  I  could  not  be  honest 
with  myself  without  stating  distinctly  that  it  has  been 
brought  about  by  persons  and  powers  entirely  beyond 
myself  and  my  control.     Strange  things — unaccount- 

14  (209) 


210     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

able  by  any  human  law  or  in  any  known  human  experi- 
ence— have  come  into  the  religious  work,  which  make 
me  a  firm  believer  in  the  interference  of  a  divine  Spirit 
who  casts  down  and  lifts  up  at  will. 

''The  hundreds  of  consecrated  martyrs  who  worked 
out  of  sight;  the  self-sacrificing  givers  who  labored  so 
hard  to  earn  the  money;  the  favorable  conditions  which 
surrounded  our  work;  and  the  fortunate  combina- 
tions in  the  beginning  made  by  men  and  women  wholly 
consecrated  to  the  cause  of  Christ,  made  possible 
what  no  human  genius  could  have  accomplished  alone. 
I — here  and  now — sincerely  reject  any  tributes  of 
praise  to  myself,  for  I  honestly  feel  that  it  has  been  a 
fortunate  combination  of  providences  which  built  up 
the  great  church  in  Philadelphia,  and  which  brought 
so  many  to  an  open  confession  of  their  faith  in  the  Lord. 

''I  was  often  a  'looker-on  in  Israel,'  when  great 
events  were  transpiring  and  when  people  turned  in 
from  the  streets  to  seek  their  Lord.  It  often  appears 
very  foolish  to  assume  that  the  Lord  of  Heaven  would 
care  what  became  of  a  little  missionary  church  nor 
would  give  any  special  attention  to  the  upbuilding  of 
one  organization — or  even  of  one  great  denomination. 
Yet  it  is  probably  true  that  the  Lord  loves  each  indi- 
vidual and  takes  as  full  charge  of  his  private  affairs 
as  if  that  individual  were  the  only  person  living  on  the 
earth.     It  is  a  comfort  to  believe  in  such  a  doctrine. 

"I  have  found  many  people,  however,  who  yet  dis- 
believe the  statement  that  just  seven  different  people 
appeared  in  our  congregation  every  week  during  five 
full  years  and  stated  their  desire  to  find  their  Lord. 
Summer  and  winter — rain  or  shine — holidays  or  work- 
days— the  same  number  presented  themselves  without 
any  previous  attempt  -to  regulate  it,  to  the  continued 
astonishment  of  myself  and  all  the  people.     There  are 


HOW  THE  TEMPLE  WORKS  211 

hundreds  of  living  witnesses  that  know  such  to  have 
been  the  fact,  by  having  been  present  through  the 
entire  five  years.  All  attempts  at  an  explanation  have 
utterly  failed  to  establish  any  definite  reason  for  such 
a  condition  of  affairs. 

''Of  the  nearly  six  thousand  people  whom  I  have  led 
through  the  waters  of  baptism  at  The  Temple  in  Phila- 
delphia, there  has  hardly  ever  been  a  person  who  was 
not  led  to  a  profession  of  his  religious  faith  by  some 
personal  advice  or  influence — and  seldom  have  any 
evangelistic  meetings  had  a  special  influence  upon  the 
number  of  accessions  to  the  church.  They  came 
steadily  and  without  crowding,  and  we  seemed  to  be 
the  reapers  from  the  harvest  other  people  sowed. 

''The  remarkable  history  of  the  great  church  in  its 
harmony,  peace  and  earnest  enthusiasm  is  also  some- 
thing exceedingly  mysterious.  The  church  member- 
ship have  been  given  the  largest  liberty  and  have  been 
encouraged  to  individual  enterprises,  and  must  have 
had  their  eccentricities  and  sometimes  had  their  con- 
scientious notions.  Many  of  the  church  must  have 
been  ambitious  for  place  and  power  and  must  have 
recognized  the  fact  that  a  public  position  in  such  a 
conspicuous  body  was  of  great  value  in  social,  pro- 
fessional or  business  life ;  and  yet  all  these  desires  have 
been  subordinated  to  the  greater  purpose  of  keeping 
to  the  front  the  needs  of  humanity  as  represented  in 
the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

"I  do  not  recall  that  in  the  thirty-three  years  of  my 
church  life  in  Philadelphia,  there  has  ever  been  called 
before  the  'Discipline  Committee'  a  single  member 
accused  of  wrongdoing  in  the  church.  There  must  have 
been  evil  persons  among  the  thousands  who  came  and 
went  through  the  membership  of  the  church  in  those 
years.     But  the  spirit  of  worship  and  sincere  consecra- 


212     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

tion  was  so  powerful  that  such  persons  either  soon  left 
the  church  or  repented  and  turned  into  the  current 
with  the  rest,  without  friction  or  scandal. 

''The  ritual  of  the  church  and  its  rehgious  meetings 
were  very  democratic — even  as  a  congregational  body — 
and  the  absolute  freedom  of  each  member  in  the  exer- 
cise of  his  rights,  where  each  person  was  the  equal  of 
every  other  in  all  his  church  rights  and  obligations, 
made  the  surprise  great.  Yet  all  these  kept  in  abiding 
fellowship  and  peace,  through  so  many  years  without 
a  disturbance  of  any  kind  that  is  worthy  of  mention. 

''The  membership  was  composed  largely  of  the 
common  people  who  were  dependent  on  their  daily 
wages  for  their  living  and  for  what  they  could  give 
towards  the  cause  of  Christ;  and  many  young  people 
joined  the  church  who  had  not  chosen  their  profession, 
or  who  were  beginners  in  the  attempts  to  take  care  of 
themselves.  And  yet,  through  twenty-five  years, 
there  was  not  known  to  be  a  single  member  of  that 
church  out  of  work  a  month  who  desired  a  position. 

"The  social  life  of  the  church  was  so  universal  and  so 
close  that  each  member  had  the  opportunity  to  make 
friends  among  the  various  classes  of  people,  and  when 
he  saw  that  he  was  to  be  out  of  employment,  it  was  a 
very  easy  matter  for  him  or  her  to  mention  the  fact 
socially  to  some  of  his  friends  in  the  church;  and  their 
fraternal  interest  led  them  to  inquiries  and  efforts 
which  secured  another  position  without  referring  the 
needs  of  that  person  to  any  formal  committee  of  the 
church.  There  w^ere  no  poor  people  connected  with 
the  church,  so  far  as  the  public  knew,  and  church 
members  did  not  hear  about  the  poor  fund  and  did  not 
realize  that  anybody  could  be  in  actual  need;  because 
the  personal  friendship  which  existed  throughout  the 
congregation  was  such  that  any  poor  person,  reduced 


HOW  THE  TEMPLE   WORKS  213 

to  need,  would  be  anticipated  and  cared  for,  so  that 
there  was  no  necessity  for  a  call  for  help  upon  the  church 
or  upon  pubhc  funds. 

''I  once  heard  that  a  widow  was  in  probable  need — as 
she  had  been  ill  for  some  time  and  had  earned  her  own 
living  for  several  years — and  I  sent  a  member  of  the 
congregation  to  visit  her  and  asked  him  to  take  a  basket 
of  provisions.  He  brought  the  basket  back  to  my 
office  and  said  that  the  lady  told  him  that  she  had 
already  had  seven  baskets  which  she  had  not  unpacked ; 
and  that  she  wished  she  knew  where  she  could  send 
those  baskets  to  people  who  needed  them  more  than 
she  did.  The  members  ever  sought  for  the  opportunity 
to  do  good  in  that  quiet  and  Christian  way,  which 
made  it  a  delight  to  know  them  and  a  blessing  of  God 
to  be  associated  with  them  in  their  endeavors  to  make 
Christ  known  to  the  world  by  their  example.'' 

At  another  time  Doctor  Conwell  summed  up  in  a 
few  brief  sentences  the  general  purposes  that  ruled 
and  the  motives  that  guided  in  the  church  work.  In 
regard  to  the  church  services,  he  said,  ''Generally 
speaking,  all  church  services  should  be  natural — just 
as  natural  as  they  can  be  made.  The  same  means 
should  be  used  in  the  pulpit  to  convince  men  and 
women  of  the  necessity  of  religious  life  as  one  would  use 
if  talking  to  a  friend  on  the  street." 

In  respect  to  church  growth,  he  said,  ^'It  is  not  a 
matter  of  human  planning.  It  is  a  matter  of  out- 
growth by  the  promptings  of  the  spirit.  Profound 
consecration  to  religion  will  lead  a  church  membership 
to  have  that  faith  which  will  do  the  next  thing.  They 
will  be  led  by  a  power  higher  than  themselves  and  will 
have  no  fear." 

^'The  principle  for  raising  money  should  be,"  Doctor 
Conwell  stated,  '' '  Seek  ye  first  the  kingdom  of  God  and 


214     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you. '  Any  method 
of  raising  money  where  you  can  take  your  religion 
with  you  is  righteous.  But  the  presence  of  the  spirit 
of  Christ  should  be  the  first  consideration,  and  the 
making  of  money  secondary." 

He  believes  that  the  social  side  of  church  work  is 
necessary.  ^'Preaching  from  the  pulpit  is  not  suffi- 
cient," he  said.  ^'Individual  work  is  necessary,  and 
the  social  life  of  the  church  gives  opportunity  for  this. 
That  is  the  advantage  and  the  necessity  for  a  social  side 
to  church  life."  Doctor  Conwell  does  not  believe  in 
a  mixture  of  church  and  politics.  ''Teach  men  to  be 
good  and  the  government  will  be  right, "  is  his  creed  on 
this  point. 

''The  Sabbath  should  be  kept  in  the  Sabbath  spirit," 
he  said  in  speaking  of  the  observation  of  Sunday.  "It 
is  not  what  one  does  on  Sunday,  but  the  spirit  in  which 
one  does  it  that  counts.  If  every  one  would  live  Sunday 
in  the  Sabbath-day  spirit,  we  would  have  no  trouble 
as  to  how  Sunday  is  observed.  For  the  sake  of  physical 
and  mental  health,  every  one  requires  one  day  in  the 
seven  for  rest.  But  there  are  many  ways  to  rest.  One 
cannot  limit  it  or  prescribe  the  method  for  another. 
But  if  the  real  Sabbath-day  spirit  rules,  Sunday  will  not 
be  observed  by  any  one  in  an  unwise  fashion." 

In  regard  to  the  general  conduct  of  affairs.  Doctor 
Conwell  said  in  an  address  on  "The  Church:"  "The 
Church  of  Christ  should  be  so  conducted  always  as  to 
save  the  largest  number  of  souls.  It  matters  little 
what  your  theories  are  or  w^hat  mine  are.  God,  in  His 
providence,  is  moving  His  Church  onward  and  upward 
at  the  same  time;  adjusting  it  to  new  situations;  fitting 
it  to  new  conditions;  advancing  civilization  and  requir- 
ing us  to  see  the  new  instrumentalities  which  He  has 
placed  in  our  hands  for  the  purpose  of  saving  the  great- 
est number  of  human  souls." 


HOW  THE  TEMPLE  WORKS  215 

With  such  underlying  principles,  one  can  see  that  the 
work  of  Grace  Baptist  Church  is  elastic  and  flexible. 
If  one  were  to  choose  a  single  word  to  describe  the 
governing  principle,  it  would  be  '' Adaptabihty."  Gen- 
erally speaking,  the  members  of  the  church  are  divided 
into  four  groups:  The  women  into  a  Ladies'  Aid  or 
some  similar  society;  the  men  into  a  business  men's 
organization  of  some  kind;  and  the  young  women  and 
young  men  into  individual  organizations  of  their  own. 
In  addition  to  these  there  are  a  number  of  subsidiary 
societies  for  special  purposes. 

Broadly  speaking,  the  organization  in  which  the 
women  of  the  church  are  banded  stands  ready  to  extend 
its  aid  to  any  social,  religious,  or  financial  project  that 
may  arise;  to  give  receptions  in  honor  of  noted  visitors; 
to  hold  series  of  special  meetings;  to  plan  suppers  and 
festivals,  whenever  it  is  necessary  to  raise  money. 
The  creed  of  this  organization  is : 

*'Use  every  opportunity  to  bring  in  new  members. 

'' Remember  the  name  of  every  new  church  member. 

^' Visit  useless  members  and  encourage  them  for  their 
own  sake  to  become  useful. 

^' Visit  persons  when  desired  by  the  pastors. 

'^  Speak  cheerfully  to  each  person  present  on  every 
occasion. 

'^Regard  every  patron  of  your  suppers  or  entertain- 
ments, and  every  visitor  to  your  religious  meetings,  as 
a  guest  calling  on  you  in  your  own  house. 

''Accept  contributions  and  subscriptions  for  the 
various  Christian  enterprises. 

''Bring  in  every  suggestion  that  you  hear  which  is 
valuable,  new  or  effective  in  Christian  work  elsewhere. 

"Never  allow  a  meeting  to  pass  without  your  doing 
some  practical  thing  for  the  advancement  of  Christ's 
kingdom. 


216     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

'^Make  yourself  and  your  society  of  some  certain  use 
to  some  person  or  cause  each  week/' 

The  Ladies'  Aid  Society  assists  in  the  prayer  meetings; 
in  refurnishing  and  improving  the  church  property;  in 
celebrating  anniversaries;  in  missionary  enterprises;  in 
securing  the  insertion  of  tablets  in  The  Temple  walls; 
in  supporting  the  local  missions  connected  with  the 
church ;  in  calling  socially  on  church  members  or  mem- 
bers of  the  congregation;  in  evangelistic  meetings;  in 
household  prayer  meetings;  in  supporting  reading 
rooms;  in  comforting  those  in  special  affliction;  in 
visiting  the  sick;  in  aiding  the  needy,  and  in  clothing 
the  poor. 

The  society  also  aids  in  paying  the  church  debts; 
in  maintaining  Mother's  Meetings;  in  looking  after  the 
domestic  wants  of  The  Temple;  in  sewing  for  the  hos- 
pitals, the  missions,  the  Baptist  Home,  the  Orphanage, 
the  church  fairs,  missionary  workers,  and  the  poor; 
and  in  managing  the  church  suppers  and  receptions 
connected  with  the  ordinations,  conventions,  and  other 
religious  gatherings. 

The  men  of  the  church  through  their  organizations 
plan  and  execute  various  projects  for  raising  money. 
They  also  take  a  deep  personal  interest  in  each  other's 
welfare,  as  is  shown  by  the  following  incident,  pub- 
lished in  the  Philadelphia  Press: 

''At  one  time  a  member  of  Grace  Baptist  Church 
became  involved  in  financial  difficulties  in  a  very 
peculiar  way.  Previous  to  connecting  himself  with 
the  church,  he  had  been  engaged  in  a  business  which 
he  felt  he  could  not  conscientiously  continue  after  his 
conversion.  He  therefore  sold  his  interest  and  engaged 
in  mercantile  pursuits  with  which  he  was  unfamiliar. 
As  a  result  he  became  involved  and  his  establishment 
was  in  danger  of  tailing  into  the  sheriff's  hands. 


HOW  THE  TEMPLE  WORKS  217 

^'The  situation  became  known  to  some  members  of 
the  Business  Men's  Union  of  the  church  and  a  com- 
mittee was  appointed  to  look  into  his  affairs.  His 
books  were  found  to  be  straight  and  his  stock  to  be 
valuable.  The  members  immediately  subscribed  the 
thousands  of  dollars  necessary  to  relieve  him  of  all 
embarrassment,  and  the  man  was  saved." 

The  young  women  of  the  church,  in  whatever  way 
they  may  be  associated,  work  to  secure  new  members; 
attend  the  meetings;  propose  new  work;  assist  the 
prayer  meeting;  volunteer  for  social  meetings;  aid  in 
the  entertainments;  originate  plans  for  Christian 
benevolent  work;  welcome  young  women  to  the  church ; 
visit  the  sick  members  of  the  parish;  seek  and  encour- 
age inquirers;  hold  household  devotional  meetings; 
sustain  missionary  work  for  young  women;  make 
the  church  home  cheerful  and  happy;  arrange  home 
gatherings  for  various  charitable  or  church  enterprises; 
solicit  books  or  periodicals  for  the  reading  rooms  or 
circulating  Hbrary. 

The  young  women  of  The  Temple  also  co-operate  to 
secure  employment  for  the  needy;  treat  all  visitors  to 
the  rooms  as  special  personal  guests;  undertake  for 
the  church  and  Christ  large  things  that  may  be  sug- 
gested by  new  conditions  and  needs;  instruct  in  the 
domestic  arts,  dressmaking,  millinery,  cooking,  decora- 
tions, and — through  the  Samaritan  Hospital — aid  in 
the  art  of  nursing.  They  also  furnish  instructive 
entertainments  for  the  young;  develop  the  various 
singing  services;  specially  care  for  and  assist  young 
sister  members;  co-operate  in  sewing  enterprises  of  all 
sorts;  aid  the  pastors  by  systematic  visitations; 
increase  the  scope  of  city  missions  especially  by  develop- 
ing women  as  workers  therein;  maintain  suitable 
young  women  as  missionaries  at  home  or  in  foreign 


218     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

fields,  and  carry  sunshine  to  darkened  hearts  and 
homes. 

The  work  of  the  young  men  of  The  Temple  follows 
similar  lines.  In  addition,  they  help  to  increase  the 
membership  and  efficienc}'^  of  the  Young  Men's  Bible 
Class  and  other  organizations;  watch  closely  the 
meetings  of  these  associations  and  keep  them  under 
the  control  of  able,  consecrated  managers  and  officers; 
make  and  keep  the  reading  room  attractive  and  help- 
ful; sustain  the  Sunday  morning  prayer  meeting; 
invite  passersby  to  enter  the  church,  and  welcome  the 
strangers  who  do  enter;  advise  seekers  after  God; 
bring  back  the  wanderers;  organize  relief  committees 
to  save  lost  young  men  of  the  city ;  look  after  traveling 
business  men  at  hotels  and  bring  them  to  The  Temple. 

The  young  men  of  the  church  also  promote  temper- 
ance, purity,  fraternity  and  spiritual  life;  initiate  the 
most  important  undertakings  of  the  church;  surround 
themselves  with  strong  young  men,  and  inaugurate 
vigorous  fresh  plans  and  methods  for  bringing  the 
Gospel  to  the  young  men  in  store,  shop,  office,  school, 
college,  on  the  streets  and  elsewhere.  They  visit  sick 
members  and  help  the  unsuccessful  into  lucrative 
employment;  organize  religious  meetings  and  make 
the  church  life  of  the  young  bright,  inspiring  and  noble; 
plan  for  sociables,  entertainments,  for  closer  acquaint- 
ance and  for  raising  money  for  Christian  work.  And 
they  also  use  their  pens  for  Christ  among  young  men 
whom  they  know,  and  also  among  strangers. 

Other  societies  of  the  church  that  are  doing  good 
work  are  the  Ushers'  Association ;  the  various  mission- 
ary societies;  the  Men's  Beneficial  Association;  the 
Women's  Beneficial  Association,  and  the  Temple 
Guards. 

The  Ushers'  Association  is  one  of  the  strongest  and 


HOW  THE   TEMPLE   WORKS  219 

most  helpful  organizations  in  furthering  the  church 
work.  The  ushers  are  united  in  a  businesslike  associa- 
tion for  mutual  pleasure  and  good  fellowship,  and  also 
to  better  conduct  their  work  and  the  church  interests 
they  have  in  hand.  They  are  under  the  leadership  of  a 
chief  usher,  who  is  president  of  the  association.  The 
spirit  of  hospitality  that  prevades  The  Temple  finds  its 
happiest  expression  in  the  courteous  welcome  and  ready 
attention  accorded  to  visitors  by  the  ushers. 

All  members  of  the  church  who  are  willing  to  give  up 
their  seats  to  strangers  on  special  occasions  send  their 
names  to  the  chief  usher.  And  it  is  no  unusual  thing 
to  see  a  member  cheerfully  relinquish  his  seat,  after  a 
whispered  consultation  with  an  usher,  in  favor  of  some 
stranger  who  is  standing. 

One  of  the  important  ways  in  which  the  church  work 
is  extended  is  through  its  annual  fair.  Nowadays, 
church  fairs  are  considered  old-fashioned  and  out  of 
date  by  many;  but  they  are  not  so  regarded  at  The 
Temple.  To  the  members  of  Grace  Baptist  Church,  a 
church  fair  has  a  special  spiritual  significance  and  is 
looked  upon  by  them  as  one  of  the  most  useful  means 
of  furthering  the  spiritual  life  and  work  of  the  church. 

^'The  true  object  of  a  church  fair  should  be  to 
strengthen  the  church,  to  propagate  the  Gospel,  and 
to  bring  the  world  nearer  its  God, ''  says  Doctor  Con- 
well.  ^'When  you  can  get  a  man  or  woman  who  is 
not  especially  interested  in  religion  to  give  something 
to  a  church  fair,  his  interest  will  follow  that  gift.  There- 
fore, raising  money  for  church  work  or  obtaining  dona- 
tions for  a  church  fair  is  evangelical,  if  done  in  the  right 
spirit.  Some  of  the  best  workers  in  our  various  organ- 
izations have  been  men  and  women  who  were  non- 
church  givers,  when  we  approached  them,  but  became 
interested  by  giving.     A  man  who  became  one  of  the 


220     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

trustees  and  faithfully  served  us  for  ten  years  was  not 
in  the  least  interested  in  church  work  when  we  first 
went  to  him  for  a  gift  for  a  fair.  In  fact,  he  rather 
emphatically  expressed  an  opinion  not  at  all  favorable 
to  church  work  and  religion  generally;  but  his  preju- 
dice was  overcome  to  the  extent  that  he  gave  a  second- 
hand safe  that  was  sold  for  a  good  sum.  A  letter  of 
thanks  was  sent  to  him  and  then  one  of  the  members 
called  upon  him  and  told  him  how  much  his  gift  had 
helped  the  committee  that  received  it.  The  man 
became  interested,  finally  discovered  that  religion  and 
church  work  were  somewhat  different  from  what  he 
thought,  and  was — as  I  have  said — one  of  our  trustees 
for  a  decade. 

^'I  could  multiply  such  instances  many  times.  A 
man  who  never  went  to  church  was  interested  in  the 
same  way  and  later  became  a  trustee  of  one  of  our 
hospitals.  Raising  money — whether  through  the  fair 
or  otherwise — has  built  up  our  church;  but  it  must  be 
done  in  the  right  spirit.  The  true  mission  of  the  church 
must  be  held  ever  in  view.  The  money  raised  is  merely 
the  'sign  following.'" 

With  Conwell,  however,  practical  methods  go  ever 
hand  in  hand  with  spiritual  motives.  The  fairs  of  The 
Temple  are  carefully  planned.  The  membership,  of 
course,  know  that  a  fair  is  to  be  held;  but  before  any 
definite  information  of  the  coming  fair  is  given  them 
a  strong  foundation  of  careful  and  systematic  prepara- 
tion is  laid.  Doctor  Conwell  and  certain  officials  of 
the  church  decide  on  the  executive  conunittee  and  call 
it  together.  Officers  are  elected.  Doctor  Conwell 
always  being  appointed  president. 

The  whole  church  membership  is  then  carefully 
studied,  and  every  member  put  to  work  upon  some  com- 
mittee, a  chairman  for  the  committee  being  appointed 


HOW  THE  TEMPLE  WORKS  221 

at  the  same  time.  A  notice  of  their  appointment,  the 
list  of  their  fellow-workers,  and  a  letter  from  the  pastor 
relative  to  the  fair  are  sent  to  each.  The  chief  purpose 
of  the  fair — that  of  saving  souls — is  ever  kept  in  view. 
The  pastor  in  his  letter  to  each  member  always  lays 
special  stress  on  it.     In  one  such  letter  he  says: 

"The  religious  purpose  is  to  consolidate  our  church 
by  a  more  extensive  and  intimate  acquaintance  with 
each  other  and  to  enlarge  the  circle  of  social  influence 
over  those  who  have  not  accepted  Christ. 

"This  enterprise  being  undertaken  for  the  service  of 
Christ,  each  church  member  is  urged  to  enter  into  it 
with  earnest  prayer,  and  to  use  every  opportunity  to 
direct  the  attention  of  workers  and  visitors  toward 
spiritual  things. 

"Each  committee  should  have  its  prayer  circle  or  a 
special  season  set  apart  for  devotional  services.  This 
enterprise  being  undertaken  for  the  spiritual  good  of  the 
church,  intimate  friends  and  those  who  have  hitherto 
worked  together  are  especially  requested  to  separate  on 
this  occasion  and  work  with  new  members,  forming  a 
new  circle  of  acquaintances. 

"Do  not  seek  for  a  different  place  unless  it  is  clear 
that  you  can  do  much  more  in  another  position,  for  they 
honor  God  most  who  take  up  His  work  right  where  they 
are  and  do  faithfully  the  duty  nearest  them. 

"Your  pastor  prays  earnestly  that  this  season  of 
work,  offering,  and  pleasure  may  be  used  by  the  Lord 
to  help  humanity  and  add  to  the  glory  of  His  Kingdom 
on  earth." 

This  is  the  tenor  of  the  letters  sent  each  year,  and 
this  purpose  is  held  ever  before  the  workers.  Each 
committee  is  urged  to  meet  as  soon  as  possible  and,  as  a 
rule,  the  chairman  calls  a  meeting  within  a  week  after 
the  receipt  of  the  list.     Each  committee  upon  meeting 


222     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

elects  a  president,  a  vice-president,  secretary  and  treas- 
urer, which,  together  with  the  original  executive  com- 
mittee, form  the  executive  committee  of  the  fair. 

Until  the  opening  of  the  fair  these  various  com- 
mittees work  to  secure  contributions  or  whatever  may 
be  needed  for  the  special  work  they  have  been  appointed 
to  do.  If  they  need  costumes  or  expensive  decorations 
for  the  booths,  they  give  entertainments  to  raise  the 
money;  all  depending  upon  the  character  of  the  fair 
in  general.  Sometimes  it  is  a  fair  in  the  accepted  sense 
of  the  word — an  occasion  devoted  to  the  selling  of  such 
goods  as  interested  friends  and  well-wishers  have  con- 
tributed. In  other  instances,  it  has  a  special  signifi- 
cance. At  one  fair,  each  committee  represented  a 
countr}^;  the  members  dressed  in  the  costumes  of  its 
people;  and  the  booth  was  typical  of  a  home  or  some 
special  building.  Such  products  of  the  country  as  could 
be  obtained  were  among  the  articles  sold  or  exliibited. 

Every  committee  meeting  is  opened  with  a  prayer; 
and  each  night  during  the  fair  a  prayer  meeting  is  held. 
In  addition,  a  committee  is  appointed  to  look  after  the 
throng  of  strangers  visiting  the  fair  and,  whenever 
possible,  to  get  them  to  register  in  a  book  kept  specially 
for  that  purpose  at  the  entrance.  To  all  those  who 
sign  the  register,  a  New  Year's  greeting  is  sent,  as  a 
Httle  token  of  the  church's  appreciation  of  their  help. 

Much  of  the  great  tide  of  membership  that  flows  into 
the  church  comes  through  the  doors  of  these  church 
fairs,  which  are  really  revival  seasons.  They  are  prac- 
tical illustrations  of  how  a  working  church  prays  and 
a  praying  church  works.  Then  Christianity  has  on  its 
working  clothes;  but  it  is  Christianity  none  the  less — 
outspoken  in  its  faith;  fearless  in  its  testimony;  and 
full  of  the  love  that  desires  to  help  every  man  and 
woman  to  a  higher  and  happier  life. 


HOW  THE  TEMPLE   WORKS  223 

The  church  entertainments  also  form  another  impor- 
tant feature  of  church  Hfe.  Indeed,  from  the  first  of 
September  until  summer  is  well  advanced,  few  weekday 
nights  pass  without  some  religious  service  or  entertain- 
ment taking  place  in  The  Temple.  In  the  height  of  the 
season,  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  two  or  three  of 
such  entertainments  to  be  given  in  various  halls  of  The 
Temple  during  the  same  evening. 

In  regard  to  church  fairs  and  entertainments.  Doctor 
Conwell  said  in  a  sermon:  "The  Lord  pit}^  any  church 
that  has  not  enough  of  the  spirit  of  Christ  in  it  to  stand 
a  church  fair,  wherein  devout  offerings  are  brought  to 
the  tithing  house  in  the  spirit  of  true  devotion.  The 
Lord  pity  any  church  that  has  not  enough  of  the  spirit 
of  Jesus  in  it  to  endure  or  enjoy  a  pure  entertainment. 
Indeed,  they  are  subjects  for  prayer  if  they  cannot — 
without  quarrels,  without  fightings,  without  defeat  to 
the  cause  of  Christ — engage  in  the  pure  and  innocent 
things  that  God  offers  to  His  children."  And  in 
an  address  on  "The  Institutional  Church, '^  he 
says: 

"The  institutional  church  of  the  future  will  have  the 
best  regular  lecture  courses  of  the  highest  order.  There 
will  be  about  them  sufficient  entertainment  to  hold  the 
audience  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  will  give  positive 
instruction  and  spiritual  elevation.  Every  Church  of 
Christ  is  so  sacred  that  it  ought  to  have  within  its  walls 
everything  that  helps  to  save  souls.  If  an  entertain- 
ment is  put  into  a  church  for  any  secular  purpose — 
simply  to  make  money — that  church  will  be  divided; 
it  will  be  enmeshed  in  quarrels,  and  souls  will  not  be 
saved  there.  There  must  be  a  higher  end.  As  between 
the  church  and  the  world  we  must  use  everything  that 
will  save  and  reject  everything  that  will  injure.  This 
requires  careful  and  close  attention. 


224     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  mS  WORK 

*'You  must  keep  in  mind  the  question,  ^Will  Jesus 
come  here  and  save  souls?'  You  must  carefully 
eliminate  all  that  will  show  irreverence  for  holy  things 
or  disrespect  for  the  church.  You  must  carefully 
introduce,  wherever  you  can,  the  direct  teachings  of  the 
Gospel,  and  then  your  entertainments  will  be  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation.  The  entertainments  of  the 
church  need  to  be  carefully  guarded;  and,  if  they  are, 
the  church  of  the  future  will  control  the  entertainments 
of  the  world.  Then  the  theater  that  has  its  display  of 
low  and  vulgar  amusement  will  not  pay  because  the 
churches  will  hold  the  best  classes  and,  for  divine  and 
humane  purposes,  will  conduct  the  best  entertainments. 
There  will  be  double  inducement  that  will  draw  all 
classes,  and  the  institutional  church  of  the  future  will 
be  free  to  use  any  reasonable  means  to  influence  men 
for  good." 

The  Baptist  Temple — as  can  be  seen — believes  in 
good,  pure  and  elevating  amusements;  but  every 
entertainment  to  be  given  is  carefully  considered.  In 
such  a  vast  body  of  workers — many  of  them  young  and 
inexperienced — this  consideration  is  necessary.  By 
a  vote  of  the  church,  every  program  to  be  used  in  any 
entertainment  in  The  Temple  must  first  be  submitted 
to  the  Board  of  Deacons;  and  what  this  Board  dis- 
approves cannot  be  presented  to  the  congregation  of 
Grace  Church  under  any  circumstances. 

The  concerts  and  oratories  of  the  chorus  are  of  the 
very  highest  order  and  attract  music  lovers  from  all 
parts  of  the  city  and  nearby  towns.  The  other  enter- 
tainments in  the  course  of  a  year  cover  such  a  variety 
of  subjects  that  every  person  is  sure  to  find  something 
to  his  liking.  The  lecturers  have  included  some  of  the 
most  prominent  men  and  women  of  the  country,  among 
them  being  ex-Presidents  of  the  United  States,  Govern- 


HOW  THE  TEMPLE  WORKS  225 

ors  of  states,  ex-members  of  Presidential  Cabinets,  and 
leading  educators  and  writers.  No  matter  what  the 
entertainment  is,  however,  the  true  mission  of  the 
church  is  never  forgotten — that  mission  which  its  pastor 
so  earnestly  often  says  is  ''not  to  entertain  people. 
The  church's  only  thought  should  be  to  turn  the  hearts 
of  men  to  God." 

''We  are  often  criticised  as  a  church,"  said  Doctor 
Conwell  in  an  address,  ^'by  persons  who  do  not  under- 
stand the  purposes  or  spirit  of  our  work.  They  say, 
'You  have  a  great  many  entertainments  and  socials, 
and  the  church  is  in  danger  of  going  over  to  the  world. ' 
Ah,  yes;  the  old  hennits  went  away  and  hid  themselves 
in  the  rocks  and  caves  and  lived  on  the  scantiest  food 
and  'Kept  away  from  the  world.'  They  were  separate 
from  the  world.  They  were  in  no  danger  of  'going 
over  to  the  world.'  They  had  hidden  themselves  far 
away  from  men.  And  so  it  is  in  some  churches  where 
— through  coldness  and  forgetfulness  of  Christ's  purpose, 
of  Christ's  sacrifice,  and  the  purpose  for  which  the 
church  was  instituted — they  withdraw  themselves  so 
far  from  the  world  that  they  cannot  save  a  drowning 
man  when  he  is  in  sight;  they  cannot  reach  down  to 
him  because  the  distance  is  too  great  and  the  life  line 
is  too  short. 

"Where  are  the  unchurched  masses  of  Philadelphia 
today?  Why  are  they  not  in  the  churches  at  this  hour? 
Because  the  church  is  so  far  away.  The  difference 
that  is  found  between  the  church  which  saves  and  that 
which  does  not  is  found  in  the  fact  that  the  latter 
holds  to  the  Pharisaical  profession  that  the  church  must 
keep  itself  aloof  from  the  people — yes,  from  the  drown- 
ing thousands  who  are  going  down  to  everlasting  ruin, 
to  be  forever  lost.  The  danger  is  not  now  so  much  in 
going  over  to  the  world  as  in  going  away  from  it — 

15 


226     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

away  from  the  world  which  Jesus  died  to  save — the 
world  which  the  church  should  lead  to  Him." 

To  keep  members  and  friends  in  touch  with  the  many 
lines  of  activity  in  which  the  Baptist  Temple  works,  a 
magazine — the  Temple  Review — is  published.  It  is  a 
private  business  enterprise,  but  it  chronicles  church 
work,  and  publishes  Doctor  Conwell's  sermons  each 
week.  Many  people  living  at  a  distance  who  cannot 
come  often  to  the  Temple  find  the  magazine  most 
enjoyable  and  helpful;  thus  obtain  their  pastor's 
sermons  and  look  through  its  printed  pages  into  the 
busy  life  of  the  church  itself.  The  publication  also 
helps  members  in  one  branch  of  the  church  work  to 
keep  in  touch  with  what  members  in  other  branches 
are  doing.  The  work  of  the  hospitals  and  university 
from  week  to  week  is  also  recorded,  so  that  the  journal 
is  a  very  good  mirror  of  the  many  activities  of  the 
Grace  Baptist  Church  membership. 

Thus,  in  good  fellowship,  the  church  works  unitedly 
to  further  Christ's  kingdom.  The  Temple  is  a  tre- 
mendous force  for  good  in  the  life  of  Philadelphia 
and  each  member  feels  a  keen  joy  in  being  a  part  of 
the  church,  and  in  knowing  that  he  can  help  in  the 
great  work  that  it  is  doing.  The  little  band  of  mem- 
bers in  the  early  days  builded  better  than  they  knew, 
when  they  struggled  so  valiantly  to  preserve  the  life 
of  Grace  Baptist  Church  and  called  the  almost 
unknown  pastor  of  a  little  church  in  Lexington  to  help 
them. 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

The  Business  Management 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  How  the  Business  Affairs  oj 
The  Temple  are  Conducted.  The  System  of  Handling 
the  Church  Finances. 

<<»^  I  ^HE  plain  facts  of  life  must  be  recognized,'^  says 
I  Doctor  Conwell.  The  business  affairs  of 
X  Grace  Baptist  Church  are  plain  facts  and 
big  ones.  There  is  no  evading  them.  The 
membership  numbers  about  three  thousand.  A  con- 
stant stream  of  money  is  pouring  in,  and  as  quickly 
going  out  for  expenses  and  charitable  purposes.  It 
must  all  be  looked  after.  A  record  of  the  membership 
must  be  kept;  changes  of  address  made;  and  the 
members  themselves  kept  in  touch  with.  It  all  means 
work  of  a  practical,  business  nature;  and  to  get  the 
best  results  from  least  expenditure  of  time  and  money, 
it  must  all  be  done  in  a  most  efficient  manner.  Doctor 
Conwell,  in  speaking  of  the  way  in  which  the  business 
affairs  of  the  Temple  are  conducted,  says: 

^'What  has  contributed  most  as  the  means  used  of 
God  to  bring  Grace  Church  up  to  its  efficiency?  It 
was  the  inspired,  sanctified,  common  sense  of  enter- 
prising, careful  business  men.  The  disciplined  judg- 
ment; the  knowledge  of  men;  and  the  forethought  and 
skill  of  those  workers  who  were  educated  in  the  school 
of  practical  business  life  helped  most.  The  trustees 
and  working  committees  in  all  our  undertakings — 
whether  for  church,  hospital,  university  or  missions — 
have  been,  providentially,  men  of  thorough  business 

(227) 


228     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

training  who  used  their  experience  and  skill  for  the 
church  with  even  greater  care  and  perseverance  than 
they  would  have  done  in  their  own  affairs. 

''When  they  wanted  lumber  they  knew  where  to 
purchase  it  and  how  to  obtain  discounts.  When  they 
needed  money  they  knew  where  the  money  was  and 
what  securities  were  good  in  the  market.  They  saved 
by  discounting  their  own  bills,  and  kindly  insisted  that 
contractors  and  laborers  should  earn  fairly  the  money 
they  received.  They  foresaw  the  financial  needs  and 
always  insisted  on  securing  the  money  in  time  to  meet 
demands. 

''Some  men  make  religion  so  dreamy,  so  unreal,  so 
unnatural,  that  the  more  they  believe  in  it  the  less 
practical  they  become.  They  expect  ravens  to  feed 
them;  the  cruse  of  oil  to  be  inexhaustible;  and  the 
fish  to  come  to  the  right  side  of  the  ship  at  breakfast 
time.  They  trust  in  God  and  loaf  around.  They 
would  conduct  mundane  affairs  as  though  men  were 
angels  and  church  business  a  series  of  miracles.  But 
the  successful  church  worker  is  one  who  recognizes 
the  plain  facts  of  life,  and  their  relation  to  heavenly 
things;  who  is  neither  profane  nor  crazy;  who  feels 
that  his  experience  and  judgment  are  gifts  of  God  to 
be  used;  but  who  also  fully  realizes  that — after  all — 
unless  God  lives  in  the  house,  they  labor  in  vain  who 
build  it. 

"None  of  our  successful  managers  have  been  flowery 
orators;  nor  have  they  been  in  the  habit  of  wearying 
man  and  the  Lord  with  long  prayers.  If  they  speak 
they  are  earnest  and  conservative.  They  are  men 
whom  the  banks  would  trust;  whose  recommendations 
are  valuable;  and  who  know  a  counterfeit  dollar  or  a 
worthless  endorsement.  They  read  men  at  a  glance, 
being  trained  in  actual  experience  with  all  classes. 


THE  BUSINESS  MANAGEMENT  229 

They  have  been  the  pillars  of  the  church.  While 
others  have  been  praying  with  religious  phraseology 
that  the  stray  sheep  might  be  sent  home,  these  men 
have  gone  after  him  and  brought  him  back.  They  have 
faithfully  done  their  part,  and  God  has  answered  their 
earnest  prayers  for  the  rest." 

One  of  the  associate  pastors  of  The  Temple,  in  speak- 
ing of  the  business  management  of  the  affairs  of  the 
church,  said :  ''Many  persons  imagine  that  the  financial 
organization  of  Grace  Baptist  Church  must  be  some- 
thing out  of  the  ordinary,  because  the  results  have 
been  so  unusual.  There  is  nothing  peculiar  in  the 
general  plan  of  financial  procedure,  but  great  pains 
are  taken  to  work  the  plan  for  all  it  is  worth.  Special 
pains  have  been  taken  to  secure  consecrated  and 
competent  men  for  the  Board  of  Trustees.  And  the 
trustees  do  this  one  thing,  a  rule  of  the  church  per- 
mitting a  man  to  hold  but  one  elective  office.  Com- 
petent financiers — consecrated  to  this  work  and  doing 
it  as  carefully  as  they  would  do  their  own  business — is 
the  statement  that  tells  the  whole  story." 

All  of  these  business  matters  are  in  the  hands  of 
the  deacons  and  trustees;  the  deacons — if  any  dis- 
tinction in  the  work  can  be  made — look  after  the 
membership,  and  the  Board  of  Trustees  attend  to  the 
financial  matters.  After  a  person  has  signified  his 
intention  to  join  the  church,  he  meets  the  deacons  who 
explain  to  him  the  system  by  which  members  con- 
tribute to  the  support  of  the  church.  If  he  desires  to 
contribute  by  taking  a  sitting,  he  is  assigned  a  seat; 
or  if  he  lives  at  a  distance  or  cannot  come  regularly,  he 
may  only  pay  the  dues — one  dollar  and  twenty  cents 
a  year  for  those  under  eighteen  years  of  age  and  three 
dollars  for  those  over  that  age. 

For  the  collection  of  the  money  from  sittings,  and 


230     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

whatever  in  addition  members  may  wish  to  give  to 
the  charitable  work  of  the  church,  envelopes  are  dis- 
tributed the  first  of  the  year  among  the  members. 
Each  member  is  given  a  packet  of  fifty-two  small 
envelopes.  These  envelopes  are  divided  into  two 
sections.  In  one  section  is  placed  the  weekly  offering 
for  the  church  work — for  the  upkeep  of  the  church,  as 
it  were;  and  in  the  other  section  is  placed  whatever  is 
contributed  to  general  benevolence  and  missions.  The 
latter  amount  is  used  for  the  charitable  work  of  the 
church  and  the  missionary  work  of  the  denomination, 
on  a  percentage  basis  arranged  by  the  church  author- 
ities. For  instance,  the  deacons  at  present  receive 
ten  per  cent  of  this  amount  for  the  work  of  the  church 
among  their  own  poor.  The  various  missions  and 
other  work  of  the  denomination  receive  five  per  cent, 
ten  per  cent,  and  twenty  per  cent,  according  to  the 
size  and  need  of  the  organization  to  which  it  is  given. 
This  eliminates  all  special  collections  for  missions, 
homes  and  the  various  societies  for  which,  in  the  past, 
special  collections  were  taken  on  special  days. 

The  money  which  pours  into  the  business  office  of 
the  church  is  taken  in  charge  by  the  Finance  Committee 
of  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  duly  recorded  by  the 
financial  secretary.  All  payments  are  entered  on 
cards  or  in  books  and,  at  a  moment's  notice,  a  member 
can  ascertain  just  what  he  has  paid  or  how  much  he 
owes  on  the  year's  account. 

This  income  is  deposited  to  the  order  of  the  church 
treasurer,  who  is  then  at  liberty  to  draw  against  it  as 
directed  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  and  properly  certi- 
fied by  the  chairman  and  secretary.  The  business 
office  is  kept  open  during  the  entire  week  with  the 
exception  of  two  afternoons  and  evenings.  The  sum 
raised  by  Grace  Baptist  Church  during  Doctor  Con- 


THE  BUSINESS  MANAGEMENT  231 

well's  pastorate,  and  paid  out  for  running  expenses, 
missions,  charitable  work,  Temple  University,  the 
Samaritan  and  Garretson  hospitals  amounts  to 
$2,483,047.00. 

The  Pew  Committee,  which  is  composed  of  three 
members  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  attends  to  the 
rental  of  the  many  sittings  in  The  Temple.  A  large 
number  of  the  regular  attendants  at  the  services  are 
not  members  of  the  church.  They  enjoy  the  services 
and  rent  sittings  that  they  may  be  sure  of  a  seat  when 
they  attend. 

The  third  committee  drawn  from  the  Board  of 
Trustees  is  the  House  Committtee  of  three  members. 

This  committee  has  charge  of  The  Temple  building ; 
sees  to  its  being  kept  in  order;  arranges  for  all  regular 
and  special  meetings;  superintends  the  heating  and 
lighting;  decides  all  questions  regarding  use  of  the 
structure  for  any  purpose,  or  for  the  use  of  a  part  of 
it  for  special  purposes;  manages  the  great  crowds  that 
so  often  throng  the  building;  has  charge  of  the  doors 
during  entertainments;  in  short,  makes  the  most  and 
the  best  of  the  great  building  under  its  care.  Six 
persons  are  constantly  employed  in  taking  care  of  The 
Temple,  and  often  there  is  necessity  for  securing  extra 
help  for  the  caretakers  of  this  church  whose  doors  are 
never  shut. 

The  deacons,  as  always,  attend  to  the  welfare  of  the 
membership.  On  Communion  Sundays,  cards  are 
issued  to  the  members  upon  which  they  may  sign  their 
names.  These  cards  the  deacons  collect  and  by  them 
record  the  number  of  members  present  and  those 
absent.  If  a  member  is  absent  three  successive  Sun- 
days, the  deacons  call  on  him,  if  he  lives  in  the  city, 
to  ascertain  the  cause  of  his  absence.  If  he  resides  in 
some  neighboring  town,  they  send  a  kindly  letter  to 


232     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

know  if  it  is  not  possible  for  him  to  attend  some  of  the 
Communion  services.  In  person  or  by  letter  they 
keep  a  loving  watch  over  the  vast  membership,  so  that 
every  member  feels  that  even  though  he  may  not 
attend  often,  he  is  not  forgotten. 

Thus  the  business  of  Grace  Baptist  Church  is 
managed  prayerfully  but  practically.  If  some  part  of 
the  machinery  seems  cumbersome,  it  is  taken  in  hand 
by  shrewd  and  experienced  minds  to  see  how  it  can  be 
improved.  What  may  seem  a  good  method  today,  a 
year  from  now  may  be  deemed  a  waste  of  time  and 
energy,  and  cast  aside  for  the  new  and  improved  sys- 
tem that  has  taken  its  place  in  the  world  of  every-day 
work.  The  church  keeps  abreast  with  the  times  in  its 
business  methods  as  well  as  in  its  spiritual  work, 
because  it  knows  that  otherwise  it  cannot  continue 
to  grow. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

The  Music  of  The  Temple 

The  Chorus  of  The  Temple,  and  Its  Organization 
and  First  Leader,  Professor  David  D.  Wood, 
Professor  Wood^s  Views  on  Choir  Organization  and 
Work.  The  Business  Management  of  The  Temple 
Chorus.     The  Special  Organ. 

WITH  a  pastor  who  had  loved  music  from 
childhood — who  taught  it  in  his  early  man- 
hood, and  who  was  himself  proficient  on 
several  instruments — music  naturally  has 
assumed  an  important  place  in  Temple  life  and  work. 
From  the  moment  of  his  entering  upon  the  pastorate 
of  Grace  Baptist  Church,  Doctor  Conwell  made  the 
music  a  feature  of  the  services. 

During  the  early  work  of  organizing  and  developing 
a  church  choir,  he  found  an  able  and  loyal  leader  in  the 
late  Professor  David  D.  Wood,  who  threw  himself 
heart  and  soul  into  helping  the  church  to  grow  music- 
ally. He  was  to  the  musical  life  of  the  church  what 
Doctor  Conwell  has  been  to  its  spiritual  growth;  and, 
next  to  their  pastor  himself,  it  is  doubtful  if  any  man 
was  so  endeared  to  the  Grace  Church  membership  as 
was  Professor  Wood,  their  blind  organist. 

He  came  to  them  in  May,  1885,  the  regular  organist 
being  sick.  His  connection  with  the  church  was 
formed  in  the  most  simple  manner  and  yet  it  was 
invaluable  to  the  work  of  The  Temple.  His  son  was 
an  attendant  at  the  church  and,  when  the  regular 
organist  fell  ill,  asked  his  father  if  he  would  not  take 

(233) 


234     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

his  place.  Ever  ready  to  do  a  kindness,  Professor 
Wood  consented.  The  regular  organist  never  suffi- 
ciently recovered  to  return  to  his  post,  being  compelled 
to  go  west  finally  for  his  health.  Doctor  Conwell 
asked  Professor  Wood  to  accept  the  position  and,  from 
that  day  until  within  a  short  time  of  his  death,  he 
faithfully  and  delightfully  served  the  church  as 
organist. 

During  his  life  Professor  Wood  was  one  of  the  most 
widely  known  organists  of  the  country,  being  acknowl- 
edged everywhere  as  a  master  of  the  instrument.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  faculty  of  the  Philadelphia 
Musical  Academy  and  principal  of  the  music  depart- 
ment in  the  Pennsylvania  School  for  the  Blind.  He  is 
said  to  have  trained  more  good  organists  than  any 
other  teacher  in  Philadelphia. 

In  the  old  church  at  Mervine  and  Berks  Streets  he 
directed  a  volunteer  choir  of  about  twenty  persons — 
all  that  the  little  organ  loft  could  accommodate.  The 
members  of  this  choir  could  sing  as  the  birds  sing, 
because  they  had  good  voices  and  loved  music:  but 
of  musical  training  or  education  they  had  little.  They 
were  drawn  from  the  membership  of  the  church  which 
was  composed  of  poor  working  people. 

From  this  nucleus  grew  the  chorus  of  The  Temple, 
which  was  organized  in  1891,  six  weeks  before  the 
membership  took  possession  of  its  new  building. 
With  the  organization  of  this  large  chorus.  Professor 
Wood  faced  a  new  and  difficult  problem.  How  was  he 
to  hold  from  one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
people  together,  who  were  not  paid  for  their  services 
and  who  were  not  people  of  leisure  to  whom  rehearsals 
are  no  tax  on  time  or  strength?  These  were  nearly  all 
working  people  who  came  to  rehearsal  after  a  day's 
tiring  employment.     That  he  succeeded  so  splendidly 


PROFESSOR   DAVID   D.    WOOD 

Famous  Organist — First  Leader  of  the  Temple  Chorus 


THE   MUSIC   OF  THE   TEMPLE  235 

in  the  fourteen  years  in  which  he  worked  with  them 
proved  his  fine  leadership. 

Professor  Wood  had  a  body  of  workers  devoted  to 
the  church — people  before  whom  was  ever  held  the 
fact  that  they  could  serve  the  Master  they  all  loved  by 
singing,  if  they  could  in  no  other  way;  that  they 
could  give  their  voices,  if  they  could  give  nothing  else. 
He  had  a  body  of  workers  devoted  also  to  himself, 
who  would  have  obeyed  him  unhesitatingly,  no  matter 
what  commands  he  might  have  given  them.  But  he 
felt  they  should  have  some  other  encouragement — 
some  other  interest  to  hold  them  together;  so,  almost 
immediately  upon  their  organization  he  took  up  the 
study  of  Haydn's  ''Creation." 

It  seemed  a  stupendous  undertaking  for  a  young 
and  inexperienced  chorus — one  with  no  trained  voices, 
and  few  of  whom  could  even  read  music  at  sight.  But 
they  plunged  into  the  study  with  spirit.  No  incentive 
was  needed  to  come  to  rehearsals;  no  one  thought  of 
dropping  out.  Indeed,  the  opportunity  to  study  such 
music  under  such  a  master  brought  many  new  members. 
And  in  the  fall  of  that  year  the  oratorio  was  given  with 
splendid  success. 

This  method  was  followed  through  the  years  that 
ensued.  Every  year  some  special  work  was  taken  up 
for  study  and  rendered  in  the  fall.  It  was  an  event 
that  became  a  recognized  feature  of  the  city's  musical 
life,  eagerly  awaited  by  music  lovers  not  only  of 
Philadelphia  but  of  nearby  towns.  In  addition  to 
Haydn's  ''Creation,"  which  was  sung  four  times,  the 
chorus  has  rendered  Handel's  "Messiah"  three  times, 
Mendelssohn's  "Elijah"  twice,  Beethoven's  "Mount 
of  Olives,"  Mendelssohn's  "Hymn  of  Praise,"  and 
Miriam's  "Song  of  Triumph."  It  has  also  given  a 
number  of  secular  concerts.      For  this  extra  work. 


236     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

neither  Professor  Wood  nor  any  member  of  the  chorus 
ever  received  one  cent  of  pay.  It  was  all  cheerfully 
contributed.  The  oratorios  were  given  with  a  full 
orchestra  and  eminent  soloists. 

In  the  secular  concerts  the  music  was  always  of  the 
highest  order.  Guilmant,  the  celebrated  French 
organist,  gave  a  recital  at  The  Temple  while  in  this 
country.  The  chorus  believes  in  the  best,  both  in  the 
class  of  music  it  renders  and  the  talent  it  secures,  and 
has  long  been  looked  on  by  those  interested  in  the 
city's  musical  welfare  as  a  society  that  encourages  and 
supports  all  that  is  high  and  fine  in  music.  Among 
the  selections  given  at  the  Sunday  services  are  Gounod's 
^'Sanctus,"  the  magnificent  ^Tilgrim's  Chorus,"  the 
'^  Gloria,"  from  Mozart's  'Twelfth  Mass,"  Handel's 
beautiful  ''Largo,"  the  "St.  Cecilia  Mass,"  and  others 
of  the  same  character. 

The  plan  of  fining  members  for  absence  from  rehear- 
sal, which  was  adopted  at  the  time  the  chorus  was 
organized,  had  also  much  to  do  with  its  success,  though 
it  was  rather  unusual  for  a  choir.  Instead  of  being 
paid  to  sing,  they  paid  if  they  did  not  sing.  The  fine 
at  first  was  twenty-five  cents  for  each  failure  to  attend 
rehearsal  or  Sunday  service.  Many  shook  their 
heads  and  said  it  was  a  bad  idea;  that  the  members 
wouldn't  come  and  couldn't  pay  the  fine;  and  that  the 
chorus  would  go  to  pieces.  But  the  members  did 
come  and,  when  for  any  reason  they  were  compelled 
to  stay  away,  they  cheerfully  paid  the  fine,  and  the 
chorus  flourished.  These  fines  helped  to  pay  the 
current  expenses  of  the  chorus.  Later  the  amount  was 
reduced  and  finally  the  practice  was  discontinued. 

Speaking  of  the  organization  and  work  of  such  a 
chorus,  Professor  Wood  said:  "In  organizing  a  church 
chorus,  one  must  not  be  too  particular  about  the 


THE  MUSIC   OF  THE  TEMPLE  237 

previous  musical  education  of  applicants.  It  is  not 
necessary  that  they  be  musicians,  or  even  that  they  read 
music  readily.  All  that  I  insist  upon  is  a  fairly  good 
voice  and  a  correct  ear.  I  assume,  of  course,  that  all 
comers  desire  to  learn  to  sing.  Rehearsals  must  be 
scrupulously  maintained,  beginning  promptly,  con- 
tinuing with  spirit,  and  not  interrupted  by  disorder  of 
any  kind. 

^'A  rehearsal  should  never  exceed  two  hours;  and  a 
half  hour  less  is  plenty  long  enough,  if  there  is  no  waste 
of  time.  In  learning  new  music,  voices  should  be 
rehearsed  separately;  that  is,  all  sopranos,  tenors, 
basses  and  altos  by  themselves  first;  then  combine  the 
voices.  You  should  place  before  a  choir  a  variety  of 
music  sufficient  to  arouse  the  interest  of  all  concerned. 
This  will  include  much  beyond  direct  demand  for  church 
work.  The  chorus  of  The  Temple  has  learned  and  sung 
on  appropriate  occasions  war  songs,  college  songs, 
patriotic  songs  and  other  grades  of  popular  music. 

''No  one  man's  taste  should  rule  in  regard  to  these 
questions  as  to  variety,  although  the  proprieties  of 
every  occasion  should  be  carefully  preserved.  Due 
regard  must  be  paid  to  the  taste  of  members  of  the 
chorus.  If  any  of  them  express  a  wish  for  a  particular 
piece,  I  let  them  have  it  and,  when  my  time  comes  to 
select,  they  are  with  me.  Keep  some  high  attainment 
before  the  singers  all  the  time.  When  the  easier 
tasks  are  mastered,  attempt  something  more  difficult. 
It  maintains  enthusiasm  to  be  ever  after  something 
better,  and  enthusiasm  is  a  power  everywhere.  In 
music,  this  is  'the  spirit  which  quickeneth.' 

"In  the  preparation  of  chorus  work  do  not  insist 
on  perfection.  When  I  get  them  to  sing  fairly  well,  I 
am  satisfied.  To  insist  on  extreme  accuracy  will 
discourage  singers.     Do  not,  therefore,  overtrain  them. 


238     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

An  incredible  amount  may  be  done  even  by  a  crude 
company  of  singers.  When  the  preparation  began  for 
the  opening  of  The  Temple,  there  was  but  a  handful  of 
volunteers  and  time  for  but  five  rehearsals.  But 
enthusiasm  rose,  reinforcements  came,  and  six  anthems, 
including  the  'Hallelujah  Chorus,'  were  prepared  and 
sung  in  a  praiseworthy  manner.  Do  not  fear  to 
attempt  great  things.    Timidity  ruins  many  a  chorus. 

''Do  not  be  afraid  to  praise  your  singers.  Give 
praise,  and  plenty  of  it,  whenever  and  wherever  it  is 
due.  A  domineering  spirit  will  prove  disastrous. 
Severity  and  ridicule  will  kill  them.  Correct  faults 
faithfully  and  promptly,  but  kindly.  In  the  matter 
of  discipline  I  am  a  strong  advocate  of  the  'fine  system.' 
It  is  the  only  way  to  keep  a  chorus  together.  The 
fines  should  be  regulated  according  to  the  financial 
ability  of  the  chorus.  This  system  is  far  better  than 
monthly  dues. 

"The  advantages  of  being  a  member  of  a  chorus  are 
many  and  of  great  value.  Concerted  work  has  advan- 
tages which  can  be  secured  in  no  other  way.  A  good 
chorus  is  an  unequaled  drill  in  musical  time.  The 
singer  cannot  humor  himself  as  the  soloist  can,  but 
must  go  right  on  with  the  grand  advance  of  the  com- 
pany. He  gets  constant  help,  also,  in  the  accurate 
reading  of  music.  Then,  too,  there  is  an  indescribable, 
uplifting,  enkindling  power  in  the  presence  and 
co-operation  of  others.  The  volume  of  song  lifts  one, 
as  when  a  great  congregation  sings.  It  is  the  esprit 
de  corps  of  the  army — that  magnetic  power  which 
comes  from  the  touch  of  elbows  and  the  consecration 
to  a  common  cause.     No  soloist  gets  this. 

"Some  would-be  soloists  make  a  great  mistake  right 
here.  They  think  that  chorus  work  spoils  them  as 
soloists.     Not  at  all,  if  they  have  proper  views  of 


THE  MUSIC   OF  THE  TEMPLE  239 

individual  work  in  a  chorus.  If  they  propose  to  sing 
out  so  they  shall  sound  forth  above  all  others,  then 
they  may  damage  their  voices  for  solo  work.  But 
that  is  a  needless  and  highly  improper  use  of  the  voice. 
Sing  along  with  the  others  in  a  natural  tone.  They 
will  be  helped  and  the  soloist  will  not  be  harmed. 

''The  best  conservatories  of  music  in  the  world 
require  of  their  students  a  large  amount  of  practice  in 
concerted  performance  and  will  not  grant  diplomas 
without  it.  All  the  great  soloists  have  served  their 
time  as  chorus  singers.  Parepa-Rosa,  when  singing  in 
the  solo  parts  in  oratorio,  would  habitually  sing  in  the 
chorus  parts  also,  singing  from  beginning  to  end  with 
the  others. 

''Many  persons  have  expressed  their  astonishment 
at  the  absence  of  the  baton  both  from  the  rehearsals 
and  public  performances  of  the  chorus  of  The  Temple. 
Experience  has  proven  to  me,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  a 
chorus  can  be  better  drilled  without  a  baton  than  with 
it,  though  it  costs  more  labor  and  patience  to  obtain 
the  result.  To  sing  by  common  inspiration  is  far  better 
than  to  have  the  music  'pumped  out,'  as  is  often  the 
case,  by  the  uncertain  movements  of  the  leader's 
baton." 

With  a  membership  that  has  ranged  from  one  hun- 
dred to  two  hundred  and  fifty,  skilled  business  manage- 
ment is  needed  to  keep  everything  running  smoothly 
in  the  chorus.  The  record  of  attendance  is  regulated 
by  the  use  of  checks.  Each  member  is  assigned  a 
number.  As  they  come  to  rehearsal,  service,  or  concert, 
the  singer  removes  the  check  on  which  is  his  number, 
from  the  board  upon  which  it  hangs,  and  gives  it  to 
the  person  appointed  to  receive  it,  as  he  passes  up  the 
stairway  to  his  seat  in  the  choir.  When  the  numbers 
are  checked  up  at  the  close  of  the  evening,  the  checks 


240     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

which  have  not  been  removed  from  the  board  are 
marked  ''absent." 

The  bill  for  sheet  music  for  one  year  has  run  at  times 
to  about  five  hundred  dollars.  To  care  for  so  much  music 
would  be  no  light  task  if  it  were  not  reduced  to  a  science. 
The  music  is  in  charge  of  the  chorus  librarian,  who 
gives  to  each  member  an  envelope  stamped  with  his 
number  and  containing  all  the  sheet  music  used  by 
the  chorus.  Each  member  is  responsible  for  his  music; 
thus  the  system  resolves  itself  into  simplicity  itself. 
In  the  Lower  Temple  enclosed  closets  are  built  into 
the  wall  and  divided  into  sections,  in  which  the 
envelopes  are  filed  according  to  number,  so  that  it  is 
but  the  work  of  a  moment  to  find  the  music  for  any 
singer.     An  insurance  of  $1,200  is  carried  on  the  music. 

Typical  of  the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  that  animates 
the  chorus  is  the  fact  that  for  nearly  ten  years  after 
the  choir  was  organized,  one  of  the  members,  in  order  to 
reduce  the  expense  for  sheet  music,  copied  on  a  mimeo- 
graph all  the  music  used  by  the  members.  It  was  a 
gigantic  task,  but  he  never  faltered  while  the  need 
was  felt. 

In  order  to  avoid  confusion — both  in  rehearsals  and 
at  each  service — every  singer  has  an  appointed  seat. 
There  is  also  a  system  of  signals  employed  by  the 
organist,  that  are  clearly  understood  and  promptly 
responded  to  by  the  chorus,  for  rising,  resuming  their 
seats,  and  for  any  other  duty.  This  regularity  of 
movement;  the  precision  with  which  the  great  choir 
leads  the  movements  and  voices  of  the  congregation 
in  all  the  musical  services;  and  the  entire  absence  of 
confusion,  impresses  the  thoroughness  of  the  chorus 
drill  upon  every  one,  and  adds  greatly  to  the  effective- 
ness and  decorum  of  the  service. 

Most  remarkable  of  all  the  work  of  the  chorus,  per- 


THE  MUSIC   OF  THE  TEMPLE  241 

haps,  is  the  fact  that  it  has  not  only  paid  its  way,  but 
has  also  contributed  financially  to  the  help  of  the 
church.  The  importance  of  this  achievement  is 
better  understood  when  it  is  remembered  that  most 
choral  societies  are  supported  by  guarantors,  or 
friends  or  members  must  make  up  the  deficits  that 
occur  with  unpleasant  regularity. 

The  chorus  has  furnished  a  private  room  in  the 
Samaritan  Hospital  at  a  cost  of  $250;  has  paid  half 
the  cost  of  the  telephone  service  to  a  shut-in  member, 
so  that  while  lying  on  his  bed  of  sickness  he  could  still 
hear  the  preaching  and  singing,  and  has  contributed 
to  members  in  need.  In  fact,  whenever  help  was 
required,  the  choir  has  come  forward  and  shouldered 
its  share  of  the  financial  burdens  of  the  church.  Out 
of  the  chorus  has  grown  many  smaller  organizations 
which  not  only  assist  from  time  to  time  in  the  church 
and  prayer-meeting  services,  but  are  in  frequent 
demand  by  lyceums  and  other  churches.  All  the 
money  they  earned  by  these  smaller  organizations  is 
devoted  to  some  part  of  The  Temple  work. 

The  organ  which  rears  its  forest  of  beautiful  pipes 
at  the  back  of  the  church  is  one  of  the  finest  in  the 
country.  It  was  specially  built  for  the  Baptist  Temple, 
and  its  voicing  is  considered  marvelous  by  experts. 

It  cost  about  $16,000;  has  sixteen  sets  of  pipes, 
five  sets  of  percussion  instruments;  and  the  pipes  are 
enclosed  in  chambers  as  nearly  sound-proof  as  it  is 
possible  to  make  them. 

The  basis  of  the  organ  is  a  thirty-two  foot  diaphone. 
This  great  pipe  weighs  about  a  ton  and  extends  from 
the  floor  of  the  organ  chamber  to  the  roof  of  The 
Temple.  The  tibia  plena  is  another  special  stop 
which  gives  pure  foundation  tones.  It  extends  for  a 
sixteen-foot  octave  and  has  seventy-three  pipes. 

16 


242     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Other  diapasons  are  the  horn  with  eighty-five  pipes; 
the  dolce;  the  concert  flute  with  ninety-seven  pipes; 
and  the  chimney  flute  with  ninety-five  pipes. 

There  are  two  wonderfully  voiced  sets  of  string  tone 
pipes,  each  having  eighty-five  pipes. 

The  reed  work  includes  a  vox  humana  of  sixty-one 
pipes;  a  clarionet  of  seventy- three  pipes;  an  oboe 
horn  of  seventy-three  pipes;  an  orchestral  oboe  of 
seventy-three  pipes;  a  cornopean  of  seventy- three 
pipes;  a  French  trumpet,  sixteen  feet  long,  of  ninety- 
five  pipes;  and  a  wonderful  tuba  mirabihs  of  ninety- 
five  pipes. 

In  the  percussion  department  are  cathedral  chimes 
of  twenty-five  gongs;  harmonic  gongs  of  thirty-seven 
notes;  a  xylophone  of  thirty-seven  notes;  electric 
bells  of  twenty-five  notes,  shimmer  bells  of  twenty-five 
notes;  a  bass  drum;  a  snare  drum,  and  a  triangle. 

The  organ  is  blown  by  a  thirty-horse-power  electric 
blower  and  the  wind  pressures  are  thirty-five  inches, 
twenty-five  inches  and  ten  inches.  All  the  pipes  are 
enclosed  in  swell  chambers.  The  key  desk  is  in  front 
of  the  chorus  gallery  so  that  the  organist  can  direct 
the  chorus. 

With  such  a  chorus  and  such  an  instrument  to  aid  it, 
the  music  of  The  Temple  is  an  inspiring,  uplifting  part 
of  the  service.  Doctor  Conwell  reads  the  hjonns  with 
an  impressiveness  that  puts  new  meaning  into  them. 
The  melody  peals  forth;  the  chorus,  as  one  individual, 
rises  and  a  great  flood  of  song  fills  the  vast  auditorium. 
As  it  ebbs  and  sinks  into  silence,  faith  has  been 
refreshed  and  strengthened,  hardened  hearts  softened, 
and  the  love  of  Christ  left  as  a  precious  legacy  with 
many  a  man  and  woman  there. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

Temple  Services 

The  Sunday  Routine.  The  Children's  Church. 
The  Sunday-school  and  Sunday  Prayer-Meetings. 
Baptismal  Services.  The  Dedication  of  Infants, 
Special  Services.     Watch  Meeting. 

SUNDAY  is  a  joyous  day  at  The  Temple,  and  a 
busy  one.  It  is  crowded  with  work  and  it  is 
good  to  be  there.  Services  begin  at  9.30 
with  a  prayer-meeting  in  the  Lower  Temple. 
This  service  is  led  by  some  member  of  the  association 
which  has  the  meeting  in  charge.  A  different  leader  is 
appointed  for  each  Sunday  and  a  special  topic  is  con- 
sidered. The  subjects  for  discussion  cover  a  period 
of  three  months  and  together  with  the  names  of  the 
leaders  are  printed  on  little  folders. 

These  folders  are  distributed  among  the  members, 
so  that  each  is  informed  as  to  who  will  conduct  the 
services  and  what  the  subject  will  be.  The  pastors 
of  the  church  are  present;  but  the  appointed  leader 
has  full  charge  of  the  meeting.  In  twenty-one  years 
Doctor  Conwell,  without  a  single  break,  has  appeared 
at  the  door  of  the  prayer-meeting  room  exactly  on  the 
minute  of  nine-thirty.  But  of  late  years  he  is  often 
constrained  to  be  away  because  of  his  lecture  trips. 
Following  the  prayer-meeting  in  the  Lower  Temple 
the  regular  church  service  begins  at  10.30  in  the 
auditorium.  At  the  close  of  this  service,  Doctor 
Conwell  descends  from  the  pulpit  and  meets  strangers 
and  friends  with  a  hearty  handclasp  and  a  cordial 
word  of  greeting. 

(243) 


244     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

While  morning  service  is  being  conducted  in  The 
Temple,  a  Young  People's  Church  is  being  held  in  the 
Lower  Temple.  Doctor  Con  well  has  not  forgotten  those 
wearisome  Sundays  of  his  boyhood,  when,  too  young  to 
appreciate  the  church  service,  he  fidgeted,  strove  to 
keep  awake,  whittled,  and  ended  it  all  by  thoroughly 
disliking  church.  He  wants  no  such  unhappy  youngsters 
to  sit  through  his  preaching;  no  such  dislike  of  the 
church  embedded  in  childish  hearts  and  minds. 

^'If  the  church  service  cannot  be  adapted  to  the 
children,^'  Doctor  Con  well  says,  ^Hhey  must  have  a 
service  of  their  own,  that  is  so  adapted ;  otherwise  they 
will  be  driven  away."  So  he  planned  a  Young  People's 
Church.  Boys  and  girls  averaging  from  three  to 
fourteen  years  attend  it;  and  Sunday  morning  the 
streets  in  the  neighborhood  of  The  Temple  are  thronged 
with  happy-faced  children  on  the  way  to  their  own 
church,  the  youngest  often  in  the  care  of  parents  who 
are  later  to  enjoy  more  fully  The  Temple  services,  since 
they  are  not  compelled  to  keep  a  watchful  eye  on  a 
restless  child. 

The  Children's  Church  is  one  of  the  very  successful 
features  of  the  work  of  The  Temple,  and  it  has  been 
copied  by  many  other  churches  who  find  it  equally 
valuable.  The  children  are  divided  into  what  might 
be  called  two  departments — the  Junior,  which  includes 
children  over  ten  years  of  age,  and  the  Kindergarten, 
composed  of  individual  classes  averaging  from  six  to  ten 
pupils,  in  which  are  children  under  ten  years.  Each 
of  these  classes  is  in  charge  of  a  skilled  kindergartner. 
A  very  pretty  graduation  service  is  held  on  Doctor 
Conwell's  birthday  for  those  old  enough  to  pass  from 
a  kindergarten  class  into  the  Junior  Department. 

Particular  attention  is  paid  to  the  selection  of 
teachers  for  these  young  church-goers.   Not  only  must 


TEMPLE   SERVICES  245 

these  teachers  be  bright,  attractive  and  of  good  char- 
acter, lovers  of  children  and  the  kind  whom  children 
instinctively  love;  but  they  must  be  trained,  experi- 
enced kindergartners  thoroughly  familiar  with  modern 
methods  of  teaching. 

The  Kindergarten  Department  opens  with  the 
doxology,  followed  by  a  hymn  and  the  collection.  A 
short  story — Biblical  in  character — is  told  from  the 
platform,  and  then  each  teacher  takes  this  story  and 
elaborates  it.  For  instance,  if  the  life  of  Joseph  is 
under  consideration,  some  part  of  it  will  be  told  each 
Sunday  from  the  platform,  followed  by  individual 
instruction  by  each  teacher.  Frequently  there  are 
models  in  sand  or  clay  to  help  illustrate  the  platform 
talk. 

The  Junior  Department,  since  it  is  intended  to  fill 
the  gap  between  the  small  children  and  the  older 
people  upstairs,  is  a  little  more  advanced  in  its  methods. 
It  has  its  own  ushers  and  takes  up  its  own  collection 
and  attendance  records.  Those  in  charge  are  appointed 
much  after  the  manner  of  regular  church  procedure. 

The  service  opens  with  the  doxology,  followed  by  a 
prayer  and  hymn  and  the  reciting  of  a  verse  assigned 
previously  in  a  special  way.  That  is,  the  children  will 
be  told  to  bring  a  verse  from  some  special  chapter,  or 
a  verse  beginning  with  some  letter  of  the  alphabet. 
The  recitation  of  this  verse  is  quite  a  feature  of  the 
exercises.  Rarely  does  a  boy  or  girl  fail  to  respond. 
A  sermon  follows  based  on  some  verse  in  the  Bible. 

Both  sessions  come  to  an  end  at  a  given  time,  and 
then  moving  pictures  are  shown.  These  motion 
pictures  are  on  religious  subjects,  or  are  moral  stories, 
animal  stories,  or  child  stories  in  which  a  worthy  or 
notable  hero  or  heroine  is  featured.  Or  the  scenes 
may  be  travel  pictures  of  the  countries  to  which  the 


246     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

church  sends  missionaries,  showing  the  conditions  there 
which  the  missionaries  have  to  overcome.  As  the 
pictures  are  thrown  on  the  screen,  some  one  quaUfied 
gives  a  talk,  pointing  out  what  is  desired  the  children 
should  learn  from  the  exhibition.  The  machine  is 
thoroughly  modern  in  every  respect — the  kind  that  is 
used  in  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  moving  picture 
houses  of  the  city — and  a  daylight  screen  is  used. 

The  children  do  more,  however,  than  merely  attend 
these  attractive  services.  The  spirit  of  work  which 
permeates  the  various  organizations  of  The  Temple  is 
felt  here.  Every  year,  the  children  give  one  or  two 
entertainments.  They  have  a  booth  at  the  fair,  and 
they  give  annually  a  New  England  dinner.  For  the 
dinner,  the  mothers  of  the  children  co-operate  with 
the  teachers.  The  work  not  only  furthers  the  growth 
of  the  church,  but  helps  to  defray  expenses  of  the 
roganization ;  for  the  cost  of  running  the  Children's 
Church  is  no  small  item. 

When  a  child  becomes  a  member  of  the  Children's 
Church,  his  name  and  address  are  registered  on  a  card 
together  with  the  date  of  his  birth.  He  is  then  given 
a  card  to  take  home  to  be  filled  out  with  the  names  of 
his  father  and  mother,  grandfather,  grandmother,  and 
brothers  and  sisters,  if  he  has  them,  together  with  the 
birthday  of  each.  As  the  birthday  of  the  various 
members  of  the  family  comes  around,  a  birthday  card 
is  sent  each,  signed  by  Doctor  Conwell  and  the  secre- 
tary and  superintendent  of  the  Children's  Church. 
When  any  member  of  the  family  of  any  of  these  church 
members  is  sick,  a  flower  or  book  is  sent.  On  Easter 
a  plant  is  sent  to  each  child. 

Thus  the  expenses  of  the  Children's  Church  are  no 
light  matter.  But  the  church  pays  its  own  way,  and 
one  year  had  nearly  three  hundred  dollars  surplus  to 
turn  into  the  treasury  of  the  church  proper. 


TEMPLE   SERVICES  247 

An  organization  that  has  grown  out  of  the  Children's 
Church  is  the  Young  People's  Vesper  Service.  It  is 
for  the  young  people  who  are  neither  children  nor 
grown-ups.  ^^It  is  to  the  church  services  what  the 
'Children's  Hour'  is  to  the  day,"  said  the  young  man 
who  organized  it.  It  is  held  every  Sunday  evening 
from  seven  to  seven-thirty.  The  young  people  them- 
selves have  charge  of  it,  different  ones  taking  turns  in 
leading.  One  of  them  presides  at  the  piano,  and  a 
feature  of  the  service  consists  in  the  bringing  in  of 
verses  after  the  manner  in  the  Children's  Church. 

As  the  young  people  grow  older  and 'desire  to  attend 
the  regular  church  services  in  the  auditorium  above, 
they  do  so.  Sometimes  a  few  of  them,  or  a  class,  will 
attend  some  special  service.  It  is  no  unusual  thing 
when  there  is  a  baptism  to  see  a  number  of  the  young 
people  from  the  Children's  Church  come  stealing  quietly 
into  the  galleries  or  upon  the  lower  floor.  After  the 
special  exercise  which  they  came  to  witness  is  over, 
they  often  return  to  their  own  service. 

As  a  rule,  the  members  of  the  Children's  Church 
become  members  of  The  Temple  or  of  some  other 
church.  Frequently  children  of  parents  who  belong  to 
some  other  church,  come  to  the  Children's  Church, 
because  there  is  no  service  of  that  kind  in  the  church 
which  their  parents  attend.  But  when  the  children 
are  ready  to  join  a  church,  they  join  their  parents' 
church.  As  far  as  records  can  be  kept,  it  has  been 
found  that  about  seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  members 
of  the  Children's  Church  over  ten  years  of  age  join 
some  church. 

The  Sunday-school  is  an  important  part  of  the  work 
and  services  of  The  Temple.  The  youngest  children 
are  enrolled  in  the  primary  or  kindergarten  depart- 
ment.    This  has  a  bright,  cheery  room  of  its  own  in 


248     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  Lower  Temple,  with  a  leader  and  a  number  of 
young  women  scattered  here  and  there  among  the 
children  to  look  after  their  needs  and  keep  them 
orderly.  Hats  are  taken  off  and  hung  on  pegs  on  the 
wall,  and  the  youngsters  are  made  to  feel  very  much 
at  home. 

The  Intermediate  Department  claims  the  next  oldest 
children.  It  is  led  by  an  orchestra  composed  of  mem- 
bers of  the  Sunday-school,  and  the  singing  is  joyous 
and  spirited.  The  superintendent  walks  around  among 
the  scholars  during  the  opening  exercises  smiling, 
encouraging,  giving  a  word  of  praise  and  urging  them 
to  do  better.  The  fresh,  pure  voices  rise  clear  and 
strong.  Outside,  on  Broad  Street,  people  stop  to  listen. 
Men  lean  up  against  the  windows  and  drink  in  the 
melody.  No  one  knows  what  messages  of  peace  and 
salvation  those  songs  carry  out  to  the  throng  on  the 
city  street. 

The  classes  of  the  Senior  Department  meet  in  the 
various  rooms  of  the  University,  and  the  adult  class 
in  the  auditorium  of  The  Temple.  The  latter  class 
Doctor  Conwell  conducted  himself  for  a  number  of 
years,  until  pressure  of  work  compelled  him  to  use 
these  hours  for  rest.  A  popular  feature  of  his  service 
was  the  question-box,  in  which  he  answered  any 
question  sent  to  him  on  any  subject  connected  w^ith 
religious  life  or  experience,  or  Christian  ethics  in  every- 
day life.  The  questions  could  be  sent  by  mail  or  handed 
to  him  on  the  platform  by  the  ushers.  They  were 
most  interesting,  and  the  service  attracted  men  and 
women  from  all  parts  of  the  city.  The  following  was 
one  of  the  questions  submitted  during  the  year  of 
building  the  College: 

''Five  thousand  dollars  are  due  next  week,  and 
$15,000  next  month.  Will  you  set  on  foot  means  to 
raise  this  amount,  or  trust  wholly  to  God's  direction?'' 


TEMPLE   SERVICES  249 

And  the  pastor  answered  from  the  platform: 

''I  would  trust  wholly  to  God's  direction.  This  is 
a  sort  of  test  of  faith,  and  I  would  make  it  more  so  in 
the  building  of  the  College.  I  do  not  know  for  certain 
now  where  the  money  is  to  come  from  next  Wednesday. 
I  have  an  idea;  but  a  few  days  ago  I  did  not  know  at 
all.  I  do  not  see  where  the  $15,000  is  to  come  from  in 
December  unless  it  be  that  the  Feast  of  Tithes  will 
bring  in  $10,000  towards  it.  That  would  be  a  mar- 
velous sum  for  the  people  to  give,  but  if  it  is  necessary 
they  will  give  it. 

''We  are  workers  together  with  God.  I  have  partly 
given  up  my  lecture  work  this  month,  as  the  church 
thought  it  was  best,  but  suppose  there  should  come  to 
me  from  Boston,  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  or  some  other 
place  a  call  to  go  and  lecture  on  the  tenth  or  twelfth 
of  December,  and  they  should  offer  me  five  hundred 
dollars  or  more,  I  would  say  immediately,  'Yes  I 
will  go,'  that  is  God's  call  to  help  the  College;  that 
would  be  the  direction  of  God.  Such  opportunities 
will  come  to  those  who  should  give  this  $15,000. 

''If  God  intends  the  amount  due  on  the  College  to 
be  paid — and  I  believe  he  does — He  will  cause  the 
hearts  of  those  who  desire  to  help  to  give  money  toward 
this  cause.  We  trust  entirely  to  God.  I  don't  believe 
if  I  were  to  lie  down,  and  the  church  should  stop,  that 
it  would  be  paid.  But  I  am  sure  if  we  work  together 
with  God,  He  will  never  fail  to  do  as  He  promises,  and 
He  won't  ask  us  to  do  the  impossible.  I  tell  you, 
friends,  I  feel  sure  that  the  $5,000  will  be  paid  next 
Wednesday,  and  I  feel  sure  the  $15,000  will  be  paid 
when  it  is  due." 

It  may  be  interesting  to  know  that  the  $5,000  was 
paid;  and  that  when  the  $15,000  was  due  in  December, 
the  money  was  in  the  treasury  of  the  church  ready  to 
be  used. 


250     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

There  are  several  interesting  special  features  of  the 
Sunday-school  work.  One  of  the  prettiest  is  the  offer- 
ing of  birthday  pennies.  All  the  members  who  have 
had  a  birthday  during  the  week  come  forward  to  put 
a  penny  for  each  year  into  the  basket,  after  which  an 
appropriate  hymn  is  sung. 

The  taking  of  the  offering  among  the  smaller  chil- 
dren is  also  a  pretty  ceremony.  Verses  on  giving  are 
recited  by  the  children;  then  one  small  child  takes  his 
stand  in  the  doorway,  holding  the  basket,  and  the 
children  all  march  by  and  drop  in  their  pennies.  The 
envelope  system  that  is  used  in  the  church  is  being 
introduced  into  the  Senior  Department  of  the  Sunday-- 
school. By  this  system,  the  attendance  as  well  as  the 
collection  is  registered  and  its  use  lessens  much  of  the 
clerical  work  of  the  service. 

From  six-thirty  on,  there  are  meetings  of  Christain 
Endeavor  societies  in  the  Lower  Temple.  At  seven- 
thirty  the  evening  services  begin  and  are  continuous 
until  nine  o'clock.  After  the  solemn  benediction  has 
been  pronounced,  a  half  hour  or  more  of  good  fellow- 
ship follows.  The  pastor  meets  strangers,  shakes 
hands  with  members,  and  makes  a  special  effort  to 
hold  a  few  words  of  personal  conversation  with  those 
who  may  have  asked  for  prayers  at  some  of  the  church 
services.  Friends  and  acquaintances  greet  each  other, 
and  the  home  life  of  the  church  comes  to  the  surface. 
The  hand  of  the  clock  creeps  to  eleven  and  sometimes 
past,  before  the  last  member  reluctantly  leaves. 

Baptism  is  a  very  frequent  part  of  the  Sunday  serv- 
ices at  The  Temple,  usually  taking  place  in  the 
morning.  It  is  a  beautiful,  solemn  ordinance.  The 
baptistry  is  a  long,  narrow  pool,  arranged  to  represent 
a  running  stream.  Years  ago,  when  Doctor  Conwell 
was  in  Palestine,  he  was  much  impressed  with  the 


TEMPLE   SERVICES  251 

beauty  of  the  River  Jordan  at  the  place  where  Jesus 
was  baptized.  Always  a  lover  of  the  beautiful  in 
nature,  the  picture  long  remained  in  his  memory — 
especially  the  leaves  and  blossoms  that  drifted  on  the 
stream.  When  The  Temple  was  planned  he  thought  of 
it,  and  determined  to  give  the  baptismal  pool  as  much 
of  the  beauty  of  nature  as  possible. 

It  is  fifteen  feet  wide  and  sixty  feet  long.  The  sides 
of  the  pool  and  the  pulpit  and  platform,  summer  and 
winter,  are  banked  with  flowers,  palms,  moss  and  vines. 
On  the  surface  of  the  water  float  blossoms,  while  at 
the  back — banked  with  mosses  and  flowers — splashes 
and  sparkles  a  little  waterfall.  It  is  a  beautiful  scene — 
one  that  never  fades  from  the  memory  of  the  man  or 
woman  who  is,  *' buried  with  Christ  by  baptism  into 
death,"  to  be  raised  again  in  the  Ukeness  of  His  resur- 
rection. The  candidates  enter  at  the  right  and  pass 
out  at  the  left,  the  pastor  pressing  into  the  hands  of 
each,  some  of  the  beautiful  blossoms  that  float  on  the 
water.  During  the  whole  service  the  organ  plays 
softly,  the  choir  occasionally  singing  some  favorite 
hymn. 

When  the  number  of  candidates  is  large,  being  on 
occasions  as  many  as  one  hundred  and  seventy-seven 
adults,  the  associate  pastor  assists.  It  is  no  unusual 
thing  to  see  members  of  a  family  coming  together  to 
make  this  public  profession  of  their  faith.  Husband 
and  wife,  in  many  cases;  husband,  wife  and  children 
in  many  others;  a  grandmother  and  two  grandchildren 
on  one  occasion,  and  on  yet  another,  a  venerable,  gray- 
haired  nurse  came  with  four  of  the  family  in  which 
she  had  served  for  many  years,  and  the  five  entered 
the  baptistry  together. 

''Among  the  converts,"  says  one  who  witnessed  a 
baptismal   service,    ''there   were   aged   persons   with 


252     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

silvered  hair;  stalwart  men,  fitted  to  bear  the  burdens 
of  the  church  for  many  years  to  come;  young  men  and 
maidens  growing  into  strong  men  and  women  of  the 
future  church;  Uttle  children,  sweet  in  their  simplicity 
and  pure  love  of  the  Saviour — little  children  who  were 
carried  in  the  arms  of  those  who  assisted,  and  whom 
Doctor  Conwell  tenderly  held  in  his  arms  as  he  buried 
them  with  Christ.'^ 

A  unique  feature  which  Doctor  Conwell  early  intro- 
duced into  the  services  of  the  church  is  the  solemn 
ceremony  of  dedicating  infants.  Parents  who  wish 
may  bring  their  child  and  reverently  dedicate  it  to 
God,  solemnly  promising  to  do  all  within  their  power 
to  train  it  to  lead  a  Christian  life,  and  to  make  a  public 
profession  of  faith  when  it  has  arrived  at  the  years  of 
discretion.     (See  Appendix  for  ^'Form  of  Service.") 

A  service  very  dear  to  the  members  of  Grace  Baptist 
Church  is  watch-meeting.  The  services  begin  at  eight 
o'clock  New  Year's  Eve,  with  a  prayer-meeting  which 
continues  until  about  nine-thirty.  An  intermission 
follows  and  usually  a  committee  of  young  people  serve 
light  refreshments  for  those  who  want  them.  At 
eleven  o'clock  the  watch-meeting  begins.  It  is  a  deeply 
spiritual  meeting,  opened  by  the  pastor  with  an  earnest 
prayer  for  guidance  in  the  year  to  come;  for  renewed 
consecration  to  the  Master's  service;  and  for  a  better 
and  higher  Christian  life,  both  as  individuals  and  a 
church. 

Hynms  follow  and  a  brief  talk  on  the  year  coming 
and  its  opportunities;  of  the  record  each  will  write  on 
the  clean  white  page  in  the  book  of  life  to  be  turned  so 
soon.  As  midnight  approaches  every  church  member  is 
asked  to  signify  his  re-dedication  to  God  and  His  service 
by  standing.  Then  the  solemn  question  is  put  to  others 
present  if  they  do  not  want  to  give  themselves  to  God — 


TEMPLE  SERVICES  253 

not  only  for  the  coming  year,  but  for  all  years?  As 
twelve  o'clock  strikes,  all  bow  in  silent  prayer  while 
the  organ  softly  breathes  a  sacred  melody.  A  few 
minutes  later  the  meeting  adjourns  and  "Happy  New 
Years"  are  exchanged. 

Several  years  ago  a  feature  of  these  services  was  the 
playing  of  the  church  orchestra  on  the  iron  balcony 
over  the  great  half-rose  window  on  Broad  Street. 
Sometimes  an  audience  of  a  thousand  people  gathered 
on  the  street  to  listen  to  this  musical  sermon,  preached 
at  the  parting  of  the  ways.  Sacred  music  on  the 
balcony  at  midnight,  also,  for  several  years  after  The 
Temple  was  built,  ushered  in  Christmas  and  Easter. 
''On  the  street,  long  before  the  hour,  the  crowds 
would  gather,  waiting  in  reverent  silence  for  the 
opening  of  the  service,"  writes  Robert  Burdette,  in 
''Temple  and  Templars." 

"The  inspiring  strains  of  'the  English  Te  Deum,' 
'Coronation,'  rose  on  the  starlit  night,  thrilling  every 
soul  and  suggesting  in  its  triumphant  measures,  the 
lines  of  Perronet's  immortal  hymn  made  sacred  by  a 
thousand  associations,  'All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus' 
Name.'  This  greeting  of  the  Resurrection,  as  it 
floated  out  over  Monument  Cemetery  just  opposite, 
where  slept  so  many  thousands,  seemed  like  an  assur- 
ance sent  anew  from  above,  cheering  those  who  slept 
in  Jesus,  and  telling  them  that  as  their  Lord  and  King 
had  risen,  and  now  lives  again,  so  shall  they  live  also. 

"Men  looked  at  the  graves  of  them  that  slept; 
listened  to  the  song  of  triumph  that  was  making  the 
midnight  glorious;  remembered  the  risen  Christ  who 
was  the  theme  of  the  song;  thought  of  that  other 
midnight;  the  riven  tomb — the  broken  power  of 
Death — a  conquered  conqueror;  and  seemed  to  hear 
the  Victor's  proclamation  as  the  apostle  of  the  Apoca- 


254     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

lypse  heard  it,  pealing  like  a  trumpet  voice  over  all  the 
earth,  'I  am  the  first  and  the  last:  I  am  He  that 
liveth  and  was  dead;  and,  behold,  I  am  alive  forever- 
more,  Amen;  and  have  the  keys  of  hell  and  of  death!'" 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

Temple  Prayer-Meetings 

Doctor  Conwell  Tells  the  Purpose  a  Prayer-Meeting 
Serves.  The  Various  Prayer-Meetings  of  The 
Temple.     The  Method  of  Conducting  Them. 

THE  prayer-meetings  of  Grace  Baptist  Church  are 
characterized  by  a  cheery,  homelike  atmosphere 
that  appeals  at  once  to  any  one  who  may 
chance  to  enter.  There  are  many  prayer- 
meetings  held  during  the  week.  The  Christian 
Endeavor  societies  hold  their  meetings  on  evenings  to 
suit  their  members.  The  young  people  hold  a  vesper 
service  Sunday,  and  on  Sunday  morning  before  the 
church  services  there  is  a  meeting  for  prayer.  On 
Easter  morning  there  is  a  sunrise  service. 

A  prayer-meeting,  according  to  Doctor  ConwelFs 
views,  is  basically  a  ''popular  weekly  gathering  of 
the  people  for  three  purposes — united  prayer,  social 
acquaintances  and  counsel."  These  three  things  are 
necessary  to  a  church,  he  goes  on  to  state,  in  discussing 
prayer-meetings.  ''In  a  multitude  of  councilors  there 
is  wisdom,  and  in  a  lot  of  people  there  are  more  ideas 
than  one  person  can  give.  For  the  best  conduct  of 
the  business  of  a  church  and  for  the  most  helpful 
social  life,  the  ideas  of  many  people  are  needed.  The 
prayer-meeting  gives  the  opportunity  for  the  free 
expression  of  these. 

"As  to  how  a  prayer-meeting  can  best  work  out 
these  three  purposes  depends  upon  the  people  them- 
selves,   their   environment   and    their   needs.      Each 

(255) 


256     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

locality  would  require  its  own  kind  of  administration. 
But  with  these  three  basic  purposes  in  mind,  a  prayer- 
meeting — no  matter  what  form  it  may  take — will  be 
helpful  to  a  church  and  to  its  members."  This  is  the 
foundation  upon  which  the  prayer-meetings  of  Grace 
Baptist  Church  are  built. 

Usually  the  large  prayer-meeting  hall  in  which  they 
are  held  is  crowded,  the  attendance  including  not  only 
members  of  the  church  but  many  who  are  not  mem- 
bers of  any  church.  When  Doctor  Conwell  is  not 
away  lecturing,  he  frequently  arrives  ten  or  fifteen 
minutes  before  the  time  for  the  service  to  begin.  As 
he  walks  to  the  platform  he  stops  and  chats  with  this 
one,  shakes  hands  with  another,  and  nods  to  many  in 
the  audience.  At  once,  all  stiffness  and  formalism 
vanish.  It  is  a  home — a  gathering  of  brothers  and 
sisters.  It  is  the  meeting  together  of  two  or  three  in 
His  name — as  in  the  old  apostoUc  days — though  these 
two  or  three  are  now  counted  by  the  hundreds. 

When  Doctor  Conwell  thus  arrives  early,  the  time 
is  passed  in  singing.  Often  he  utilizes  these  few 
minutes  to  learn  new  hymns;  so  that  when  the  real 
prayer-meeting  is  in  progress,  there  will  be  no  blunder- 
ing through  new  tunes  or  weak-kneed  renditions  of 
them.  The  singing  Doctor  Conwell  wants  done  with 
the  spirit.  He  will  not  sing  a  verse  if  the  heart  and 
mind  cannot  endorse  it.  After  singing  several  hymns 
in  this  fashion,  every  one  present  is  fully  in  tune  for 
the  services  to  follow. 

The  prayer-meeting  opens  with  a  short,  earnest 
prayer.  A  hymn  follows.  It  is  Doctor  Conwell's 
practice  to  have  any  one  call  out  the  number  of  a 
hymn  he  would  like  sung.  And  it  is  no  unusual  thing 
to  hear  a  perfect  chorus  of  numbers  after  Doctor 
ConwelFs,  ''What  shall  we  sing?"    A  chapter  from  the 


TEMPLE  PRAYER-MEETINGS  257 

Bible  is  read  in  accord  with  the  topic  of  the  evening 
and  a  short  talk  follows.  Then  Doctor  Conwell  says, 
''The  meeting  now  is  in  your  hands,"  and  sits  down  as 
if  he  had  nothing  more  to  do  with  it.  But  his  subtle 
leadership  is  there  ready  to  guide  and  direct.  He 
never  allow^s  the  meeting  to  grow  dull,  though  it  seldom 
exhibits  a  tendency  to  do  so. 

An  interesting  feature,  and  one  that  is  helpful  in 
leading  church  members  to  take  part  in  the  prayer- 
meeting,  is  the  giving  of  Bible  verses.  It  is  a  regular 
feature  of  Grace  Church  prayer-meetings.  ''Let  us 
have  verses  of  Scripture,"  or,  "Each  one  give  his 
favorite  text,"  Doctor  Conwell  announces.  Imme- 
diately from  all  parts  of  the  large  room  come  responses. 
Some  rise  to  give  them  and  others  recite  them  sitting. 
Hundreds  are  frequently  given  in  a  short  space  of  time, 
and  sometimes  the  speakers  add  a  bit  of  personal 
experience  connected  with  the  verse. 

The  prayer  meetings  are  always  full  of  singing — 
often  of  silent  prayer;  and  never  does  one  meeting  end 
without  an  invitation  to  those  seeking  God  and  wish- 
ing the  prayers  of  the  church,  to  signify  it  by  rising. 
While  the  request  is  made,  the  audience  is  asked  to 
bow  in  silent  prayer  that  strength  may  be  given  those 
who  want  God's  help  to  make  their  desire  known. 
In  the  solemn  hush,  one  after  another  rises  to  his  feet, 
often  as  many  as  fifty  making  this  silent  appeal  for 
strength  to  lead  a  better  life.  Immediately  Doctor 
Conwell  leads  into  an  earnest  prayer  that  those  seeking 
the  way  may  find  it,  and  that  the  peace  that  passeth 
understanding  may  come  into  their  hearts  and  lives. 

But  Doctor  Conwell  does  not  let  the  matter  rest 
there.  After  the  services  are  over,  each  one  who  has 
risen  is  sought  out  by  some  member  of  the  church, 
talked  with  in  a  friendly,  sympathetic  way,  and  his 

17 


258     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

name  and  address  taken.  Sometimes  this  work  is  in 
charge  of  a  committee,  and  sometimes  it  is  left  to  the 
discretion  of  the  members.  The  names  and  addresses 
are  given  to  Doctor  Conwell.  If  time  permits,  he 
writes  to  many  of  them.  He  makes  all  of  them  the 
subject  of  personal  prayer. 

Frequently,  before  asking  those  to  rise  who  wish  the 
prayers  of  the  church,  Doctor  Conwell  asks  if  any  one 
wishes  to  request  prayers  for  others.  The  response  to 
this  inquiry  is  always  large.  A  member  of  the  staff  of 
The  Temple  Review  made  a  note  at  one  prayer-meeting 
of  these  requests  and  published  it  in  the  magazine. 
Three  requests  were  made  for  husbands,  eight  for 
sons,  one  for  a  daughter,  three  for  children,  ten  for 
brothers,  two  for  sisters,  two  for  fathers,  one  for  a 
cousin,  one  for  a  brother-in-law,  four  for  friends, 
eleven  for  Sunday-school  scholars,  one  for  a  Sunday- 
school  class,  four  for  sick  persons,  two  for  scoffers, 
twenty-one  for  sinners,  four  for  wanderers,  five  for 
persons  addicted  to  drink,  three  for  mission  schools, 
five  for  churches — one  that  was  divided,  another 
deeply  in  debt,  another  for  a  sick  pastor  and  the  other 
two  seeking  a  higher  development  in  godliness. 

As  many  of  these  requests  come  from  church  mem- 
bers, both  pastor  and  people  pay  especial  attention  to 
them  and  practically,  as  well  as  prayerfully,  try  to 
reach  those  for  whom  prayers  are  asked.  In  many 
cases  distinct  answers  to  these  prayers  are  secured,  so 
evident  that  none  could  mistake  them.  At  a  service 
a  mother  asked  prayers  for  a  wayward  son  in  Chicago. 
Doctor  Conwell  and  some  of  the  deacons  led  the 
church  in  prayer  for  the  boy,  very  definitely  and  in 
faith.  At  that  same  hour — as  the  young  man  after- 
ward related — he  was  passing  a  church  in  Chicago,  and 
felt  strangely  impressed  to  enter  and  give  his  heart  to 


TEMPLE  PRAYER-MEETINGS  259 

Christ.  It  was  something  he  had  no  intention  of 
doing  when  he  left  his  hotel  a  few  minutes  before.  But 
he  went  in;  joined  in  the  meeting;  asked  for  forgive- 
ness of  his  sins  and  the  prayers  of  the  church  to  help 
him  to  lead  a  better  life;  and  accepted  Christ  as  his 
personal  Saviour.  In  the  joy  of  his  new  experience, 
he  wrote  his  mother  immediately. 

At  another  prayer-meeting  Doctor  Conwell  read  a 
letter  from  a  gentleman  requesting  the'  prayers  of  the 
church  for  his  little  boy  whom  the  doctors  had  given 
up  to  die.  He  stated  in  the  letter  that  if  God  would 
spare  his  child  in  answer  to  prayer,  he  would  go  any- 
where and  do  anything  the  Lord  might  direct.  After 
reading  the  letter  Doctor  Conwell  led  earnestly  in 
prayer,  beseeching  that  the  child's  life  might  be  saved, 
since  it  meant  much  for  the  cause  of  Christ  on  earth. 
Several  members  of  the  church  made  fervent  prayers 
for  the  child  and,  at  the  close  of  the  meeting,  many 
expressed  themselves  as  being  confident  that  their 
prayers  would  be  answered.  At  that  same  hour  the 
disease  turned.  The  child  has  grown  to  be  a  young 
man,  and  with  his  father  is  a  member  of  Grace  Church. 
At  a  recent  service,  more  than  six  hundred  asked  for 
prayers  and,  during  the  week  that  followed,  a  large 
proportion  of  them  told  Doctor  Conwell  that  their 
prayers  had  been  answered.  Such  direct,  unmis- 
takable answers  strengthen  faith;  give  confidence  to 
ask  for  prayers  for  loved  ones;  and  make  it  a  very 
earnest  and  solemn  part  of  the  prayer-meeting  service. 
Thus  working  and  praying,  praying  and  working,  the 
church  marches  forward.  With  its  three  thousand 
members  united  in  the  sole  desire  to  stand  for  what  is 
uplifting  in  life  and  eager  to  help  either  a  cause  or  a 
single  individual  in  need,  it  has  tremendous  power 
for  good. 


260     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

^^In  no  other  city  in  the  country  is  there  such  an 
example  of  the  quickening  force  of  a  united  and  work- 
ing church  organization  as  is  given  by  the  North 
Broad  Street  Temple,  Philadelphia,"  says  an  editorial 
writer  in  a  Philadelphia  paper.  ' '  Twenty  such  churches 
in  this  city  of  1,650,000  people  would  do  more  to 
evangelize  it  and  re-awaken  an  interest  in  the  vital 
truths  of  Christianity  than  the  hundreds  of  church 
organizations  it  now  has.  The  world  is  demanding 
more  and  better  returns  from  the  church  for  the  time 
and  money  given  it.  Real,  practical  Christian  work 
is  what  is  asked  of  the  church.  The  sooner  it  conforms 
to  this  demand,  the  more  quickly  it  will  regain  its  old 
influence  and  be  prepared  to  make  effective  its  fight 
against  evil." 

That  this  practical  Christian  work  is  within  the 
power  of  any  body  of  Christian  workers  to  do,  the 
history  of  this  church  proves.  It  started  with  but  a 
handful  of  people  and  without  money.  It  was  their 
sincere  desire  to  serve  God,  and  their  willingness  to 
work  and  to  sacrifice  which  has  led  them  to  their 
present  position  of  usefulness.  God  worked  with  them. 
But  He  is  ^'no  respecter  of  persons."  The  message 
of  Grace  Baptist  Church  over  and  beyond  the  actual 
work  it  has  done,  which  is  but  the  ''sign  following," 
is  one  of  cheer.  From  apparent  failure;  from  small 
beginnings;  from  almost  nothing  in  the  way  of  the 
world's  goods  has  come  great  abundance  of  good. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

How  Temple  University  Transforms  Life 

The  Reason  Instruction  at  Temple  University 
Means  More  than  in  Many  Institutions.  Doctor 
Conwell  Tells  How  It  Came  to  Be.  Rev.  Forest 
Dager  Shows  the  Need  of  It. 

ONE  of  the  greatest  monuments  to  the  work 
that  Grace  Baptist  Church  has  accompHshed 
in  Philadelphia  is  the  Temple  University.  If 
the  church  had  rendered  no  other  service  to 
the  city  but  the  founding  of  this  University,  this  act 
alone  would  establish  it  as  having  done  incalculable 
good  to  the  community.  Churches  and  hospitals 
have  been  a  part  of  the  established  order  of  things  for 
centuries;  but  it  is  doubtful  if  there  is  or  ever  has 
been  such  another  institution  as  Temple  University. 
There  was  certainly  none  when  it  was  founded.  It 
was,  and  is,  unique.  And  that  it  fills  a  great  need  is 
shown  by  the  thousands  of  eager  grateful  and  happy 
students  who  throng  it. 

In  the  twenty-seven  years  of  its  existence  and  in 
the  lifetime  of  its  founder,  it  has  had  more  than  80,000 
students.  In  a  few  years  this  number  will  have  passed 
the  100,000  mark.  This  in  itself  is  remarkable.  Few, 
if  any,  educational  institutions  of  similar  character  the 
world  around  can  point  to  such  a  record.  This  very 
fact  shows  how  great  was  the  need  for  it  in  American 
life  today.  The  response  to  the  opening  of  its  doors 
was  so  great  and  so  overwhelming  that  it  banished  at 
once  any  doubt  as  to  the  demand  for  such  an  institution, 
or  its  present  or  future  usefulness. 

(261) 


262     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

But  of  far  greater  significance  than  the  attendance 
is  the  character  of  the  attendance.  The  people  who 
come  to  Temple  University  are,  most  of  them,  working 
men  and  women.  They  are  men  and  women  who  must 
earn  their  living  and  who  have  only  their  evenings — 
or  a  spare  hour  or  so  during  the  day — to  study.  They 
come  to  Temple  University  during  these  spare  hours, 
or  at  night,  and  pursue  any  special  study  or  course  of 
study  they  wish.  They  often  spend  years  studying 
before  they  are  able  to  graduate.  Not  only  are  the 
hours  made  convenient  to  suit  those  who  are  employed, 
but  fees  are  small,  to  meet  limited  incomes. 

The  tremendous  response  to  such  a  means  of  getting 
an  education  shows  how  anxious  are  those  deprived 
of  the  usual  means  of  study  to  improve  their  condition, 
and  how  eagerly  they  seize  the  opportunity,  once  it  is 
given  them.  To  this  University  comes  life — unformed 
and  uneducated — and  it  is  molded  into  usefulness  and 
beauty.  Lives  that  might  be  dwarfed,  cramped  and 
narrow  without  the  help  which  this  University  gives 
are  broadened  out  into  greater  joy  and  usefulness.  It 
is  this  which  makes  the  attendance  record  of  80,000  so 
remarkable.  For  almost  every  one  of  that  80,000  has 
a  vividly  interesting  life-story  to  tell  because  of  Temple 
University — a  story  of  the  enrichment  of  life;  of  the 
fulfilment  or — to  give  it  the  literal  meaning — the 
filling  full  of  life,  because  of  what  was  received  there. 

A  young  man  who  longed  for  an  education,  but  who 
had  no  means  of  securing  one  in  his  native  city,  came  to 
Philadelphia  when  he  heard  of  Temple  University  with 
exactly  thirty  cents  in  his  pocket.  Today  he  is  a 
judge.  Temple  University  was  the  bridge  from 
ignorance  and  poverty  to  knowledge  and  power. 

A  young  girl  who  had  been  unable  to  go  beyond  the 
lower  grades  in  school  because  of  the  need  of  her  earn- 


TEMPLE  UNIVERSITY  TRANSFORMS  LIFE    263 

ings  in  the  home,  could  only  secure  work  that  paid 
two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  week.  Some  one  told 
her  of  Temple  University  and  advised  her  to  study 
bookkeeping  there.  In  a  short  time  she  was  earning 
ten  dollars  a  week;  was  continuing  her  education  and 
was,  in  appearance  and  in  her  joy  in  living,  a  trans- 
formed person. 

A  poor,  ignorant  breaker  boy  came  from  the  mining 
districts,  having  heard  of  the  Temple  University.  He 
studied  at  night  and  worked  during  the  day.  He  is 
now  one  of  the  official  stenographers  connected  with 
the  Panama  Canal  Commission.  Without  the  oppor- 
tunity Temple  University  gave  him,  he  would  probably 
still  be  in  the  mining  district,  stunted  in  body  and  mind 
and  of  little  use  to  himself  or  the  world. 

A  young  girl,  belonging  to  one  of  the  poorest  families 
in  one  of  the  most  sordid  quarters  of  Philadelphia,  was 
brought  under  the  influence  of  the  Temple  University. 
She  entered  its  classes;  became  one  of  its  most  enthu- 
siastic students,  and  is  now  at  the  head  of  a  training 
school  for  nurses  which  she  established  in  a  foreign 
land.  Her  brother,  who  was  induced  by  her  to  become 
a  student,  is  one  of  the  prosperous  and  responsible 
business  men  of  a  growing  town  in  the  South. 

One  boy  studied  at  night  for  nineteen  long  years, 
taking  a  single  course  at  a  time,  working  meanwhile  to 
earn  his  living  during  the  day,  until  at  last  he  satis- 
factorily passed  for  the  bar  and  is  now  a  successful 
lawyer.  Another  student  was  earning  six  dollars  a 
week  when  he  entered.  He  is  now  receiving  $6,000  a 
year  in  a  government  position  at  Washington. 

One  of  the  students  in  the  early  days  at  the  college 
was  a  poor  boy  without  any  education  whatever.  He 
had  been  compelled  to  help  earn  the  family  living  as 
soon  as  he  was  able,  because  his  father  was  a  drunkard. 


264     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

For  fifteen  years  he  studied,  passing  from  one  grade  to 
another.  Finally  he  had  the  great  joy  of  being  ordained 
to  the  ministry. 

Such  are  the  life  stories  of  these  students.  The 
records,  were  they  written,  would  fill  volumes.  Thou- 
sands upon  thousands  of  lives  are  transformed  in  this 
way  by  the  Temple  University.  All  over  the  world 
are  men  and  women  who  have  risen  to  places  of  power 
and  usefulness  through  the  opportunity  to  get  an 
education  given  by  the  Temple  University,  and  which 
is  not  furnished  in  the  same  way  by  any  other 
educational  institution. 

^^Next  to  our  common  school  system,  there  is  no 
institution  in  this  city,''  says  one  of  the  leading  Phila- 
delphia newspapers  '^so  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  our 
people  as  the  Temple  University." 

This  almost  phenomenal  work  which  the  Temple 
University  accomplishes  started  in  a  small  way  and 
from  *^  doing  the  next  thing."  In  speaking  of  its 
inception  Doctor  Conwell  says: 

^'The  Temple  University  is  another  surprising 
development  far  beyond  the  plans  and  intentions  of 
those  of  us  who  had  to  do  with  its  beginning.  The 
friends  who  gathered  about  me  were  all  inspired  with 
the  desire  to  do  good  in  the  Master's  name  and  simply 
did  'the  next  thing,'  and  tried  to  do  it  well.  No  one 
could  have  believed  when  Charles  M.  Davies,  a  young 
printer,  came  to  me  for  instruction  in  Latin  and  Greek 
with  a  view  to  his  entering  the  Christian  ministry, 
that  from  his  application  there  would  have  come  so 
immeasurable  a  result.  None  of  us  could  take  to 
ourselves  the  credit  of  having  laid  out  plans  which  could 
have  reached  such  a  successful  position  as  the  Temple 
University  holds  now  as  an  agency  for  the  good  of 
mankind. 


TEMPLE  UNIVERSITY  TRANSFORMS  LIFE    265 

''I  had  been  a  poor  boy  and  was  obliged  to  sacrifice 
much  to  secure  an  education,"  said  Doctor  Conwell. 
^*I  was  compelled  to  rise  at  four  o'clock  in  the  morning 
to  help  the  steward  of  the  New  Haven  Hotel  at  Yale 
College  in  order  to  get  the  'come  backs'  from  the 
tables,  which  supplied  myself  and  my  brother  with 
our  board.  I  had  suffered  the  tortures  of  a  poor 
college  boy — obliged  to  wear  seedy  clothing  and  with- 
out extra  money  to  pay  entrance  fees  into  social  clubs 
or  share  in  the  festivities  of  the  'Wooden  Spoon.' 

''When  young  Davies  said  he  desired  so  much  to 
have  an  education,  my  sympathies  were  deeply  aroused 
and  I  determined  to  help  him  in  every  possible  way, 
and  told  him  that  he  should  have  three  evenings  a 
week  of  my  time  for  at  least  one  hour  each  night. 
But  when  he  came  for  his  recitation,  he  brought  with 
him  six  other  young  men  who  had  the  same  ambition 
and  who  hoped  that  I  might  be  able  to  teach  a  class 
without  more  expense  of  time  or  money  than  it  would 
take  to  teach  one  scholar. 

"I  explained  to  them  what  a  sacrifice  it  would  be  to 
them  but  what  the  gains  would  also  be,  and  at  the 
second  meeting  of  the  class  I  was  overwhelmed  by  the 
attendance  of  forty  hopeful  and  enterprising  young 
men.  There  were  but  a  few  of  them  who  intended  to 
enter  the  ministry,  but  all  desired  a  wider  education, 
and  many  hoped  to  increase  their  income  as  a  con- 
sequence of  practical,  intellectual  training. 

"Then  we  organized  an  evening  school  with  volunteer 
teachers,  and  established  regular  grades  of  instruction, 
and,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  year,  had  over  two 
hundred  and  fifty  students.  We  required  thorough 
study  and  insisted  upon  careful  examinations  with 
regular  promotion  on  merit.  We  felt  sure  that  careless 
instruction  in  evening  classes  on  the  go-as-you-please 


266     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

plan  of  attendance  was  of  more  injury  then  good  to 
the  young  people  of  the  city. 

^^Such  teaching  assisted  them  into  habits  of  careless- 
ness, neglect  and  laziness,  which  destroy  the  hope  of 
final  success.  We,  therefore,  insisted  upon  a  real 
school  to  be  attended  by  real  scholars — where  regular 
study  was  required  and  where  the  teachers  were 
inspired  by  a  real  desire  to  be  of  practical  but  positive 
help.  Since  then  almost  100,000  students  have  already 
been  taught  in  regular  courses  in  the  institution,  and 
now  every  large  nation  in  the  world  contributes  towards 
the  list  of  students  who  attend. 

''The  enterprise  has  had  its  dark  days,  when  great 
sacrifices  were  necessary  for  its  continuance.  It  has 
had  the  opposition  of  some  employers  who  feared  that 
an  education  would  turn  their  employees  into  other 
occupations,  and  it  has  had  the  prejudice  of  the  rich 
who  naturally  desire  to  keep  the  higher  places  of  earth 
for  their  sons  and  daughters,  and  who  often  stated  that 
they  feared  the  institution  was  educating  the  common 
people  'above  their  station'  and  would  lead  the  poor 
people  to  be  ambitious  for  places  which  could  only  be 
occupied  to  advantage  by  the  wealth}^ 

*' While  the  rich  institutions  of  the  land  received 
millions  and  millions  from  the  gifts  of  the  wealthy  and 
seemed  to  have  more  money  floating  into  their  treasuries 
than  they  were  able  to  administrate,  yet  the  Temple 
University,  without  endowment  and  without  gifts  of 
the  rich,  kept  steadily  rising  to  favor  and  to  power, 
until  the  natural  rise  in  the  value  of  property  given  to 
it  laid  the  foundation  for  a  permanent  institution  and 
landed  it  safely  beyond  the  danger  of  financial  wreck. 

"The  list  of  men  and  women  who  cheerfully  gave 
their  all  to  the  support  of  that  institution  is  after  all  a 
long  one,  and  when  the  eternal  roll  is  opened  which 


TEMPLE  UNIVERSITY  TRANSFORMS  LIFE    2G7 

contains  the  names  of  those  who  made  the  largest 
sacrifices  to  estabhsh  that  beneficial  institution  in  its 
present  position  of  influence,  there  will  be  found  many 
names  which  are  not  now  mentioned — and  those  of  us 
who  have  lived  to  receive  the  sweet  tributes  of  praise 
and  honors  are  really  the  least  among  the  builders  of 
the  Temple  University.  'God  moves  in  a  mysterious 
way  his  wonders  to  perform/  And  having  the  spirit 
and  disposition  to  serve  God,  those  men  and  women 
were  used  beyond  their  own  expectations,  and  found 
themselves  unintentionally  more  important  instru- 
ments in  the  hands  of  the  living  God  than  they  had 
hoped.  'I  feel  as  one  who  walks  alone,  some  banquet 
hall  deserted,'  as  I  strive  to  recall  that  glorious  com- 
pany of  men  and  women  who,  in  the  weeks  of  holy 
labor,  laid  the  foundations  for  the  Temple  University. 
God  bless  their  memories." 

A  short  time  after  Charles  M.  Davies  and  his  poor 
young  friends  applied  for  instruction,  Dr.  Conwell 
wrote  a  member  of  his  family  of  how  the  idea 
their  need  had  suggested  was  further  shaped  by  other 
influences  and  gradually  took  definite  form.  ''A 
woman,  ragged  and  with  an  old  shawl  over  her  head, 
met  me  in  an  alley  in  Philadelphia  late  one  night," 
he  said  in  this  letter.  ''She  saw  the  basket  on  my  arm, 
and  looked  in  my  face  wistfully,  as  a  dog  looks  up 
beside  the  dinner  table.  She  was  hungry,  and  was 
coming  in  empty.  I  shook  my  head,  and  with  a 
peculiarly  sad  glance  she  turned  down  the  dark 
passage.  I  had  found  several  families  hungry,  and  yet 
I  felt  like  a  hypocrite,  standing  there  with  an  empty 
basket  and  a  woman — perhaps  a  mother — so  pale  for 
the  lack  of  decent  food. 

"On  the  corner  was  a  church — stately  and  archi- 
tecturally  beautiful   by   day — but   after   midnight   it 


268     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

resembled  a  glowering  ogre,  and  looked  so  like  Newgate 
Prison,  in  London,  that  I  felt  its  chilly  shadow.  Half 
a  million  cost  the  cemented  pile,  and  under  its  side 
arch  lay  two  newsboys  or  bootblacks  asleep  on  the  step. 

''What  is  the  use?  We  cannot  feed  these  people. 
Give  all  you  have,  and  an  army  of  the  poor  will  still 
have  nothing;  and  those  to  whom  you  do  give  bread 
and  clothes  today  will  be  starving  and  naked  tomorrow. 
If  you  care  for  the  few,  the  many  will  curse  you  for 
your  partiality.  While  I  stood  meditating,  the  police 
patrol  drove  along  the  street,  and  I  could  see  by  the 
corner  street  lamp  that  there  were  two  women,  one 
little  girl,  and  a  drunken  old  man  in  the  conveyance, 
going  to  jail. 

''At  my  door  I  found  a  man  dressed  in  costly  fashion 
who  had  waited  for  me  outside,  as  he  had  been  told 
that  I  would  come  soon  and  the  family  had  retired. 
He  said  his  dying  father  had  sent  for  me.  So  I  left 
the  basket  in  the  side  yard  and  went  with  the  messenger. 
The  house  was  a  mansion  on  Spring  Garden  Street. 
The  place  was  inelegantly  overloaded  with  luxurious 
furniture — money  wasted  by  some  inartistic  purchasers 
— and  the  paintings  were  rare  and  rich.  The  family  of 
seven  or  eight  gathered  by  the  bedside  when  I  prayed 
for  the  dying  old  man.  They  were  grief-stricken  and 
begged  me  to  stay  until  his  soul  departed. 

"It  was  daylight  before  I  left  the  bedside  and,  as 
the  dying  still  showed  that  the  soul  was  delaying  its 
journey,  I  went  into  the  spacious,  handsome  library. 
Seeing  a  rare  book  in  costly  binding  among  the  volumes 
on  the  lower  shelf,  I  opened  the  door  and  took  it  out. 
My  hands  were  black  with  dust.  Then  I  glanced 
along  the  rows  and  rows  of  valuable  books  and  noticed 
the  dust  of  months  or  years.  The  family  were  not 
students  or  readers,      One  son  was  in  the  Albany 


TEMPLE  UNIVERSITY  TRANSFORMS  LIFE    269 

Penitentiary;  another  was  a  fugitive  in  Canada.  At 
the  funeral,  afterwards,  the  wife  and  daughter  from 
Newport  were  present,  and  their  tears  made  furrows 
through  the  paint  upon  their  faces.  Those  rich  people 
were  strangely  poor,  and  a  book  on  a  side  table  on  the 
Abolition  of  Poverty'  seemed  to  be  in  the  right  place. 

''That  night  was  conceived  the  Temple  College  idea 
which,  in  a  way,  had  been  germinating  since  Charles 
M.  Davies  and  his  poor  young  friends  had  come  to 
me.  It  was  no  new  truth;  no  original  invention,  but 
merely  a  simpler  combination  of  old  ideas.  There 
was  but  one  remedy  for  all  of  these  ills  of  poor  and 
rich,  and  that  could  only  be  found  in  a  more  useful 
education.  Poverty  seemed  to  me  to  be  wholly  that 
of  the  mind.  Want  of  food,  or  clothing,  or  home,  or 
friends,  or  morals,  or  religion,  seemed  to  be  the  lack  of 
right  instruction  and  proper  discipline.  The  truly 
wise  man  need  not  lack  the  necessities  of  life;  the 
wisely-educated  man  or  woman  will  get  out  of  the 
dirty  alley  and  will  not  get  drunk  or  go  to  jail.  It 
seemed  to  me,  then,  that  the  only  great  charity  was  in 
giving  instruction. 

''The  first  class  to  be  considered  was  the  destitute 
poor.  Not  one  in  a  thousand  of  those  living  in  rags 
and  on  crusts  would  remain  in  poverty  if  he  had  educa- 
tion enough  of  the  right  kind  to  earn  a  better  living  by 
making  himself  more  useful.  He  is  poor  because  he 
does  not  know  any  better.  Knowledge  is  both  wealth 
and  power. 

"The  next  class  who  stand  in  need  of  the  assistance 
love  wishes  to  give  is  the  great  mass  of  industrious 
people  of  all  grades  who  are  earning  something — those 
who  are  not  cold  or  hungry,  but  who  should  earn  more 
in  order  to  secure  the  greater  necessities  of  life  that 
make  for  happiness.     They  could  be  so  much  more 


270     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

useful  if  they  knew  how.  To  learn  how  to  do  more 
work  in  the  same  time — or  how  to  do  much  better 
work — is  the  only  true  road  to  riches  which  the  owner 
can  enjoy. 

''To  help  a  man  to  help  himself  is  the  wisest  effort 
of  human  love.  To  have  wealth,  and  to  have  honestly 
earned  it  all  by  skill  or  wisdom,  is  an  object  of  ambition 
worthy  of  the  highest  and  best.  Hence,  to  do  the  most 
good  to  the  great  classes — rich  or  poor — we  must  labor 
industriously.  The  lover  of  his  kind  must  furnish 
them  with  the  means  of  gaining  knowledge  while  they 
work. 

''Then  there  was  a  third  class  of  mankind,  starving 
with  their  tables  breaking  with  luscious  foods;  cold 
in  warehouses  of  ready-made  clothing  of  the  most 
costly  fabrics;  seeing  not  in  the  sunlight,  and  restless 
to  distraction  on  beds  of  eiderdown.  They  do  not 
know  the  use  or  value  of  things.  They  are  harassed 
with  plenty  that  they  cannot  appropriate.  They  are 
doubly  poor.  They  need  an  education.  The  library  is 
a  care,  an  expense  and  a  disgrace  to  the  owner  who 
cannot  read. 

"To  give  education  to  those  in  possession  of  prop- 
erty which  they  might  use  for  the  help  of  humanity 
and  which  they  might  enjoy,  is  as  clear  a  duty  as  it 
is  to  help  the  beggar.  And,  indeed,  indirectly  the 
education  of  the  unwise  wealthy  to  become  useful  may 
be  the  most  practical  way  of  raising  the  poor.  There 
is  a  need  for  every  dollar  of  the  nation's  property,  and 
it  should  be  invested  by  men  whose  minds  and  hearts 
have  been  trained  to  see  the  human  need  and  to  love  to 
satisfy  it." 

Thus  was  the  Temple  University  conceived  and 
started.  Its  growth  was  phenomenal.  From  the 
request  of  one,  to  an  attendance  of  six  the  first  evening; 


TEMPLE  UNIVERSITY  TRANSFORMS  LIFE    271 

of  forty  the  second  evening,  and  two  hundred  and 
fifty  regularly  enrolled  students  at  the  beginning  of  the 
first  year,  shows  how  the  good  news  swept  the  city, 
and  how  the  opportunity  was  eagerly  seized  by  those 
longing  for  just  such  an  opening.  The  University 
was  justified  from  the  start. 

Rev.  Forest  Dager — at  one  time  Dean  of  Temple 
College,  the  forerunner  of  the  University — said  in 
regard  to  the  people  who  in  later  life  crave  opportunities 
for  study: 

''That  the  Temple  College  idea  of  educating  working 
men  and  working  women,  at  an  expense  just  sufficient 
to  give  them  an  appreciation  of  the  work  of  the  institu- 
tion, covers  a  wide  and  long-neglected  field  of  educa- 
tional effort,  is  at  once  apparent  to  a  thoughtful  mind. 
Remembering  that  out  of  a  total  enrolment  in  the 
schools  of  our  land  of  all  grades,  public  and  private,  of 
14,512,778  pupils,  963/2  Per  cent  are  reported  as^' 
receiving  elementary  instruction  only;  that  not  more 
than  thirty-five  in  1,000  attend  school  after  they  are 
fourteen  years  of  age;  that  twenty-five  of  these  drop 
out  during  the  next  four  years  of  their  life;  that  less 
than  ten  in  1,000  pass  on  to  enjoy  the  superior  instruc- 
tion of  a  college  or  some  equivalent  grade  of  work,  we 
begin  to  see  the  unlimited  field  before  an  institution 
like  this. 

''Thousands  upon  thousands  of  those  who  have  left 
school  quite  early  in  life,  either  because  they  did  not 
appreciate  the  advantage  of  a  liberal  education,  or 
because  the  stress  of  circumstances  compelled  them  to 
assist  in  the  maintenance  of  home,  awake  a  few 
years  later  to  the  realization  that  a  good  education  is 
more  than  one-half  the  struggle  for  existence  and 
position.  Their  time  through  the  day  is  fully  occupied; 
their  evenings  are  free.     At  once  they  turn  to  the 


272     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

evening  college  and,  grasping  the  opportunities  for 
instruction,  convert  those  hours,  which  to  many  are 
the  pathway  to  vice  and  ruin,  into  stepping  stones  to  a 
higher  and  more  useful  career. 

*'An  illustration  of  the  wide-reaching  influence  of 
the  college  work  is  a  significant  fact  that  during  one 
year  there  was  personally  known  to  the  president,  no 
less  than  ninety-three  persons  pursuing  their  studies 
in  various  universities  of  our  country,  who  received 
their  first  impulses  toward  a  higher  education  and  a 
wider  usefulness  in  Temple  College." 

In  1893,  in  an  address  on  the  institutional  church, 
delivered  before  the  Baptist  Ministers'  Conference  in 
Philadelphia,  Doctor  Conwell  said: 

''At  the  present  time  there  are  in  this  city  hundreds 
of  thousands,  to  speak  conservatively — I  should  say 
at  least  500,000  people — who  have  not  the  education 
they  certainly  wish  they  had  obtained  before  leaving 
school.  There  are  at  least  100,000  people  in  this  city 
willing  to  sacrifice  their  evenings  and  some  of  their 
sleep  to  get  an  education,  if  they  can  get  it  without 
the  humiliation  of  being  put  into  classes  with  boys 
and  girls  six  years  old.  They  are  in  every  city.  There 
is  a  large  class  of  young  people  who  have  reached  the 
age  where  they  find  they  have  made  a  mistake  in  not 
getting  a  better  education.  If  they  could  obtain  one 
now — in  a  proper  way — they  would.  Universities 
do  not  furnish  such  an  opportunity  and  neither  does 
the  public  school. 

''The  churches  must  institute  schools  for  those 
whom  the  pubHc  does  not  educate,  and  must  educate 
them  along  the  lines  they  cannot  reach  in  the  public 
schools.  We  are  not  to  withdraw  our  support  from,  nor 
to  antagonize,  the  public  schools;  as  they  are  the 
foundations  of  liberty  in  the  nation.     But  the  public 


TEMPLE  UNIVERSITY  TRANSFORMS  LIFE    273 

schools  do  not  teach  many  things  which  young  men  and 
young  women  need. 

''I  believe  every  church  should  institute  classes  for 
the  education  of  such  people,  and  I  believe  the  insti- 
tutional church  will  require  it.  I  believe  every  evening 
in  the  week  should  be  given  to  some  particular  kind 
of  intellectual  training  along  some  educational  line; 
that  this  training  should  begin  with  the  more  evident 
needs  of  the  young  people  in  each  congregation,  and 
then  be  adjusted,  as  the  matter  grows,  to  the  wants 
of  each." 


18 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

A  University  for  the  People 

Obtaining  the  Charter.  Laying  the  Corner-Stone. 
The  Ultimate  Development  that  is  Hoped  Will 
Come, 

A  LTHOUGH  the  need  for  such  an  institution  as 

/\  the  Temple  University  was  genuine,  as  was 
A  1l  shown  by  the  students  who  came  in  great 
throngs  from  all  parts  of  the  city,  it  was  not 
an  easy  matter  at  first  to  meet  this  need.  When  the 
first  class  was  started,  Doctor  Con  well  had  only  been 
in  the  city  two  years.  The  church  itself  was  still 
struggling  with  its  own  problems  of  larger  accommoda- 
tions for  the  crowds  that  came. 

But  Doctor  Conwell  is  never  one  to  be  daunted  by 
seemingly  insurmountable  obstacles,  nor  by  lack  of 
money,  if  he  feels  that  a  work  should  be  done.  He 
beheves  that  a  genuine  need  carries  with  it  potentially 
and  inherently  the  power  that  will  supply  that  need; 
and  that  the  human  agent  is  but  the  channel  for  the 
expression  of  the  supply.  This  is  the  rock  upon  which 
he  stands — the  faith  that  upholds  him  in  his  under- 
takings. Thus,  side  by  side  with  the  church  work  in 
those  busy  days  of  building  the  great  Temple  on 
Broad  Street,  went  the  evolution  and  development  of 
the  University  that  now  stands  beside  it. 

The  first  catalogue  of  the  Temple  College  was  issued 
in  1887,  and  the  institution  was  chartered  in  1888, 
at  which  time  there  were  five  hundred  and  ninety 
students.      The  College  overflowed  the  basement  of 

(274) 


A  UNIVERSITY  FOR  THE  PEOPLE  275 

the  church  into  two  adjoining  houses.  When  The 
Temple  was  completed  the  College  occupied  the  old 
church  building  at  the  corner  of  Berks  and  Mervine 
Streets.  When  that  building  was  filled  to  overflow- 
ing the  College  moved  into  two  large  houses  on  Park 
Avenue.     Still  growing,  it  rented  two  large  halls. 

The  news  that  in  these  halls  the  Temple  College  had 
enlarged  quarters  brought  such  a  flood  of  students  that 
almost  from  the  start  applicants  were  turned  away. 
Nothing  was  to  be  done  but  to  build.  It  was  a  serious 
problem.  The  church  itself  had  just  been  completed 
and  a  heavy  debt  of  $250,000  hung  over  it.  To  add 
the  cost  of  a  college  to  this  burden  required  faith  of 
the  highest  order  and  work  of  the  hardest. 

^'For  seven  years  I  have  felt  a  firm  conviction  that 
the  great  work — the  special  duty  of  our  church — is 
to  establish  the  College,"  said  Doctor  Conwell,  in 
speaking  of  the  matter  to  his  congregation.  ^'We  are 
now  face  to  face  with  it.  How  distinctly  we  have 
been  led  of  God  to  this  point!  Never  before  in  the 
history  of  this  nation  have  a  people  had  committed  to 
them  a  movement  more  important  for  the  welfare  of 
mankind  than  that  which  is  now  committed  to  your 
trust  in  connection  with  the  permanent  establishment 
of  the  Temple  College.  We  step  now  over  the  brink. 
Our  feet  are  already  in  the  water,  and  God  says,  'Go 
on,  it  shall  be  dry-shod  for  you  yet,^  and  I  say  that 
the  success  of  this  institution  means  others  like  it  in 
every  town  of  5,000  inhabitants  in  the  United  States. 

^'One  thing  we  have  demonstrated — those  who  work 
for  a  living  have  time  to  study.  Some  splendid  speci- 
mens of  scholarship  have  been  developed  in  our  work. 
And  there  are  others — splendid  geniuses — yet  undis- 
covered; but  the  Temple  College  will  bring  them  to 
the  light,  and  the  world  will  be  richer  for  them.     By 


276     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

the  use  of  spare  hours — hours  usually  running  to 
waste — great  things  can  be  done.  The  commendation 
of  these  successful  students  will  do  more  for  the  College 
than  any  number  of  rich  friends  can  do.  It  will  make 
friends;  it  will  bring  money;  it  will  win  honor,  and 
it  will  secure  success.'^ 

An  investment  fund  was  created  and  once  more  the 
people  made  their  offerings.  The  same  self-sacrificing 
spirit  was  shown  that  had  been  so  in  evidence  in  the 
building  of  the  church.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  educa- 
tional institution  of  the  country  has  been  founded  on 
such  genuine  self-denial.  Children  brought  dimes  and 
quarters  and  half  dollars — their  first  earnings;  women 
sold  their  jewelry  that  they  might  help  the  poor  into 
broader  life;  and  families  cheerfully  cut  down  their 
marketing  that  they  might  give  food  for  the  mind  to 
those  in  need  of  it.  Few  large  gifts  were  received.  It 
is  a  university  for  the  people  and  it  has  been  built  by 
the  people.  Perhaps  that  is  the  reason  that  it  meets 
so  fully  the  needs  of  the  people. 

Thus  the  work  progressed.  In  August,  1893,  the 
corner-stone  of  the  College  building  was  laid.  Taking 
up  the  silver  trowel  which  had  been  used  in  laying  the 
corner-stone  of  The  Temple  in  1889,  Doctor  Conwell 
said: 

'^  Friends,  today  we  do  something  more  than  simply 
lay  the  corner-stone  of  a  college  building.  We  do  an 
act  here  very  simply  that  shows  to  the  world — and  will 
go  on  testifying  after  we  have  gone  to  our  long  rest — 
that  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  only  an  institu- 
tion of  theory  but  an  institution  of  practice.  It  will 
stand  here  upon  this  great  broad  street  and  say  through 
the  coming  years  to  all  passersby,  'Christianity  means 
something  for  the  good  of  humanity;  Christianity 
means  not  only  belief  in  things  that  are  good  and  pure 


A  UNIVERSITY  FOR  THE  PEOPLE  277 

and  righteous,  but  it  also  means  an  activity  that 
shall  bless  those  who  need  the  assistance  of  others.' 
It  shall  say  to  the  rich  man,  'Give  thou  of  thy  surplus 
to  those  who  have  not.'  It  shall  say  to  the  poor  man, 
'Make  thou  the  most  of  thy  opportunities  and  thou 
shalt  be  the  equal  of  the  rich.' 

''Now,  in  the  name  of  the  people  who  have  given  for 
this  enterprise;  in  the  name  of  many  Christians  who 
have  prayed,  and  who  are  now  sending  up  their  prayers 
to  heaven,  I  lay  this  corner-stone." 

The  work  went  on.  In  May,  1894,  a  great  congrega- 
tion thronged  The  Temple  to  attend  the  dedication 
services  of  "Temple  College;"  for  it  was  in  its  new 
home — a  handsome  building  presenting,  with  The 
Temple,  a  beautiful  stone  front  of  two  hundred  feet  on  the 
broad  avenue  which  it  faces.  Robert  E.  Pattison, 
then  Governor  of  Pennsylvania,  presided,  saying,  in 
his  introductory  remarks,  "Around  this  noble  city 
many  institutions  have  arisen  in  the  cause  of  education, 
but  I  doubt  whether  any  of  them  will  possess  a  greater 
influence  for  good  than  Temple  College." 

Bishop  Foss,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
offered  prayer.  The  orator  w^as  Hon.  Charles  Emory 
Smith,  of  Philadelphia,  ex-Minister  to  Russia.  James 
Johnson,  the  builder,  gave  the  keys  to  the  architect, 
Thomas  P.  Lonsdale,  who  delivered  them  to  the 
pastor  of  Grace  Baptist  Church  and  president  of 
Temple  College,  remarking  that,  "It  was  well  these 
keys  should  be  in  the  hands  of  those  who  already  held 
the  keys  to  the  inner  temple  of  knowledge." 

President  Conwell,  in  receiving  these  keys,  said:  "By 
united  effort,  penny  by  penny,  and  dollar  by  dollar, 
every  note  had  been  paid,  and  every  financial  obliga- 
tion promptly  met.  It  is  a  demonstration  of  what 
people  can  do  when  thoroughly  in  earnest  in  a  great 
enterprise." 


278     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

The  classes  at  first  were  entirely  free,  but  as  the 
attendance  increased,  it  was  found  necessary  to  charge 
a  nominal  fee  in  order  to  keep  out  those  who  had  no 
serious  desire  for  study,  but  came  irregularly,  ''just  for 
the  fun  of  the  thing."  When  it  was  decided  to  charge 
a  small  fee  for  the  privilege  of  attending,  the  announce- 
ment was  received  with  the  unanimous  approbation  of 
the  students  who  honestly  wished  to  study  and  who, 
more  than  any  others,  were  hindered  by  the  aimless 
element. 

Still  the  demands  upon  the  College  grew  and  the 
trustees  saw  the  need  of  increasing  its  facilities.  On 
December  12,  1907,  the  charter  was  amended,  changing 
the  name  from  Temple  College  to  Temple  University. 
Additional  buildings  were  secured  to  increase  the 
facilities  for  classes.  The  Philadelphia  Dental  College 
and  the  Garretson  Hospital  were  federated  with  it, 
thus  opening  avenues  of  study  and  usefulness  in  new 
fields.  Each  year  sees  some  increase  in  its  scope  or 
accommodations.  It  grows  as  needs  present  them- 
selves. Speaking  of  the  future  he  hopes  for  the  Uni- 
versity, Doctor  Conwell,  at  a  recent  celebration  of 
Founder's  Day,  said: 

"We  have  been  struggling  upward  toward  an  ideal 
which  we  haven't  quite  reached  yet.  But,  with  the 
aid  of  our  fellow  Philadelphians,  we  are  confident  that 
this  ideal  will  be  placed  within  our  power  of  realization 
within  the  next  few  months,  and  possibly  within  the 
next  few  weeks.  Then  will  come  the  apex — the 
crowning  of  our  ideas  and  ideals  for  Temple  University. 

''We  founded  the  institution  to  supply  a  human 
need.  Let  me  illustrate:  Some  time  ago  I  happened 
to  be  near  a  baseball  park.  Happy  thousands  inside 
were  cheering  the  players.  I  induced  a  small  boy  to 
let  me  have  a  peep  through  the  knothole  which  he  had 


J        ^LU        lA^rJ      iLmLj/M 


A  UNIVERSITY  FOR  THE  PEOPLE  279 

claimed  as  his  own.  I  saw  the  crowd,  and  I  saw  the 
players  running  around  the  diamond ;  but  I  had  never 
had  time  to  see  the  game  before  and  consequently  knew 
nothing  of  baseball.  Then  I  recognized  my  loss.  I 
bought  a  book  and  studied  it  for  about  three  hours. 
I  called  to  my  aid  a  man  well  versed  in  the  game. 
The  next  time  I  have  an  opportunity  I  shall  see  a  game 
of  baseball.  I  have  laid  hold  of  a  new  way  of  enjoying 
this  world  because  I  have  learned  this  game. 

"That  is  the  great  need  of  humanity  today — the 
need  for  the  enjojTnent  of  this  world  in  which  we  live. 
But  the  capacity  for  enjoyment  must  be  enlarged  by 
the  study  of  the  objects  in  the  world.  Instruction 
and  inspiration  are  thus  the  great  need  of  humanity, 
and  The  Temple  idea  is  the  universal  education  of  all 
the  people  after  they  leave  the  public  schools.  It  is 
our  first  aim  to  teach  people  to  be  more  useful  to  their 
employers  and  thus  be  of  more  help  to  themselves  and 
those  dependent  on  them. 

''It  is  impossible  that  this  work  can  be  done  by  the 
state.  Our  city,  state  and  national  government 
could  never  maintain  an  institution  so  immense  in 
•scope.  The  cost  would  be  too  great  and  it  would  be 
unjust  to  tax  all  the  people  for  the  benefit  of  those 
with  the  ambition  to  make  their  own  way  to  the  top 
of  the  ladder.  And  so,  in  this  ideal  of  ours,  the  stu-  ^^ 
dent  must  pay  his  tuition.  Every  boy  in  America 
should  follow  the  ancient  custom  of  learning  a  trade. 
And  while  learning  his  life-work  under  practical  con- 
ditions, he  must  pay  his  own  way  through  the  uni- 
versity. I  can  think  of  nothing  greater  than  for  a 
young  man  or  woman  to  be  able  to  look  the  world 
squarely  in  the  eye  and  say,  'I  have  gone  through 
college.  I  made  my  own  living  at  the  same  time. 
I  have  paid  my  way.     I  have  earned  my  education 


280     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

myself/     Such  a  course  redoubled  the  value  of  the 
graduate  to  the  world." 

Doctor  Conwell  then  explained  that  the  idea  of  the 
ultimate  extension  of  Temple  University  would  mean 
a  university  in  every  ward  throughout  Philadelphia. 
In  this  way,  he  declared,  higher  education  would  not 
only  be  placed  within  the  grasp  of  every  boy  or  girl 
in  Philadelphia,  but  would  be  brought  practically  to 
the  door  of  every  home  in  the  city. 

In  a  word,  he  wants  a  complete  education  to  be  right 
at  hand  for  every  boy  and  girl,  and  every  man  and 
woman  in  Philadelphia — an  education  to  be  given  in 
such  a  way  that  no  matter  what  each  person^s  means,  nw 
how  occupied  his  time,  he  can  avail  himself  of  this 
opportunity  and  become  as  well  educated  as  though 
wealth  and  leisure  were  his. 

And  Doctor  Conwell  beheves  that  by  working  and 
studying — as  the  students  of  Temple  University  do — 
they  really  get  a  fuller,  richer  education,  and  have  a 
better  understanding  of  life,  than  do  many  of  those 
students  whose  way  is  paid  through  college.  But,  be 
this  as  it  may,  he  desires  for  the  poor  the  same  oppor- 
tunity to  develop  life  to  its  fullest  extent  that  wealth 
is  able  to  bring.  He  wants  for  every  one  who  comes 
into  the  world,  the  joy,  the  breadth  and  the  enrichment 
of  life  that  a  full  education  affords.  Of  this  ideal,  one 
of  the  speakers  at  the  Founder's  Day  celebration  said : 

''Tonight  we  honor  the  realization  of  a  vision  of  one 
man;  an  idea  materialized;  an  ambition  embodied. 
Doctor  Conwell's  vision  was  constructive  rather  than 
destructive;  beneficial  rather  prejudicial  to  mankind; 
an  idea  which  opened  the  gates  of  opportunity  for 
every  deserving  man  and  woman  of  Philadelphia.  The 
realization  and  fruition  of  this  idea  is  a  blessing  and  a 
credit  to  those  who  have  aided  in  bringing  it  to  pass, 
and  a  monument  to  the  man  who  conceived  it. 


A  UNIVERSITY  FOR  THE  PEOPLE  281 

''After  living  at  least  three  lives  in  one,  he  has  now 
a  still  greater  idea — the  greatest  of  them  all.  We  can 
only  paraphrase  Lincoln  and  express  the  hope  that  the 
people  of  Philadelphia  will  here,  this  night,  highly 
resolve  that  the  university  of  the  people,  by  the  people, 
and  for  the  people,  shall  not  perish  from  the  earth." 

Thus,  because  one  poor  boy  struggled  so  bitterly  for'' 
an  education;  because  a  keen-eyed  man  saw  another's 
needs,  reading  the  signs  by  the  light  of  his  own  bitter 
experience,  a  great  university  for  busy  men  and 
women  has  grown  to  make  possible  to  them  the 
education  which  is  bread  and  meat  to  their  minds. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

A  Democratic  Institution. 

What  the  Opportunities  it  Offers  Mean.  Its 
Adaptable  Curriculum.  Its  Willingness  to  Meet 
Needs.  The  Various  Departments.  Many  Unique 
Special  Courses.      Its  Small  Tuition  Fees. 

THE  Temple  University  is  truly  a  democratic 
institution.  Through  its  portals  pass  young 
and  old,  rich  and  poor.  Children  from  the 
^  kindergarten  walk  in  and  out  side  by  side  with 

gray-haired  men  and  women;  and  boys  and  girls  from 
wealthy  families  with  young  men  and  women  from 
shops  and  factories. 

The  management  endeavors  to  meet  the  needs  of 
these  various  students.  President,  dean,  clerical  force 
and  teachers  bend  their  energies  to  supply,  in  the 
simplest  and  most  efficient  way,  what  this  great  army 
of  seekers  desire. 

The  classes  are  most  interesting.  Nearly  all  nation- 
alities are  represented,  and  almost  all  occupations.  A 
visit  to  the  various  classrooms  during  recitation  hours 
is  most  enjoyable.  Upon  one  such  visit  one  evening, 
a  young  lad  of  about  sixteen  was  called  upon  by  the 
teacher  for  a  declamation.  He  was  pale,  with  deep- 
sunken  eyes,  and  looked  as  if  he  worked  at  a  loom. 
He  came  forward  without  diffidence  and  began  to 
describe  a  landscape.  Under  his  expressive  gestures 
and  the  changing  modulations  of  his  voice,  the  picture 
grew  before  the  eyes  of  his  hearers. 

He  was  totally  unconscious  of  himself  and  his  audi- 

(282) 


A   DEMOCRATIC   INSTITUTION  283 

ence.  He  lived  in  the  scene  he  was  painting.  His 
eyes  glowed.  His  voice,  like  the  strings  of  a  harp, 
was  swept  with  feeling.  Those  who  heard  him  felt 
that,  could  he  pursue  his  studies,  he  would  probably 
become  a  public  speaker.  Were  not  this  opportunity 
open  to  him,  he  might  be  compelled  to  spend  his  life 
at  a  monotonously  clicking  loom. 

In  the  same  class  were  girls  who  looked  as  if  they 
worked  hard  and  had  not  too  great  a  supply  of  food, 
and  matrons  probably  away  for  a  brief  while  from 
housekeeping  cares.  These  few  hours  of  study  in  the 
University  classrooms  gave  refreshing  glimpses  into  a 
world  outside  of  the  narrow  one  of  work  in  which  they 
daily  lived. 

In  another  class  was  a  young  fellow,  distinguished 
looking  in  bearing  and  features.  It  was  learned  that 
he  was  a  fireman  in  a  nearby  foundry.  He  had  care*- 
fully  planned  his  hours  off  duty  that  he  might  prepare 
for  the  bar  without  detriment  to  health  or  w^ork.  His 
future  as  a  lawyer  seems  assured.  Yet  without  this 
opportunity  he  might  be  condemned  to  a  grimy  foun- 
dry; and  perhaps  sink  lower  in  the  scale  of  living  as 
the  years  passed,  because  of  inhibited  desires. 

In  a  room  were  a  group  of  deft  craftsmen  busily 
making  baskets  and  other  articles  from  reed  and 
various  grasses.  A  bright-eyed  youth  who  looked  as 
if  he  might  be  an  Armenian  was  making  a  beautiful 
little  stand,  the  equal  of  any  that  could  be  purchased  in 
the  furniture  shops. 

In  another  part  of  the  building  a  large  class  of  young 
and  old  were  being  instructed  in  the  mysteries  of 
cooking.  On  the  floor  above,  in  a  homelike  room,  with 
tables  and  sewing  machines,  pattern  books  and  forms, 
a  group  was  learning  to  make  dresses. 

''English  comp"  was  the  name  given  by  a  student 


284     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

to  a  bright-looking  class  in  a  large,  cheerful  room. 
The  girls  looked  as  if  they  had  been  working  hard  all 
day,  but  they  were  eager  and  enthusiastic.  Perhaps 
from  among  them  will  come  some  great  delineator  of 
American  life. 

In  a  nearby  room,  a  [teacher  was  discussing  the 
problems  of  municipalities.  In  another,  the  intricacies 
of  German  verbs  were  being  explained.  A  group  of 
men  who  looked  as  though  they  came  from  business 
offices  was  engrossed  in  laboratory  experiments  in  a 
room  of  shelves  and  queer-looking  apparatus.  In  a 
pleasant  room  with  tables  and  chairs,  a  class  in  botany 
analyzed  the  flowers  and  foliage  spread  about  on  the 
tables,  and  tabulated  for  future  reference  the  data 
gathered. 

As  the  gong  sounded  for  change  of  classes,  teachers 
in  earnest  consultation  with  pupils  stood  at  the  doors 
of  the  classrooms,  or  at  the  desks,  giving  final  words 
of  encouragement  or  explanation. 

Day  and  night  a  stream  of  people  pours  in  and  out 
of  the  business  office.  They  come  to  see  if  they  can 
take  up  some  special  subject  at  an  hour  that  suits 
their  convenience;  to  find  out  what  it  will  cost  to  study 
a  certain  branch;  and  to  inquire  if  it  is  possible  to  get 
instruction  which  they  cannot  find  taught  elsewhere 
at  a  convenient  time  or  within  their  means. 

The  adaptability  to  a  need  is  one  of  the  great  fea- 
tures of  the  work  of  Temple  University,  as  it  is  of 
Grace  Baptist  Church.  Its  curriculum  is  elastic  and 
the  faculty  never  fails  to  change  or  modify  their  plans 
at  once,  if,  by  so  doing,  they  can  serve  a  greater  num- 
ber than  they  are  serving  at  the  moment.  Perhaps 
Doctor  Conwell,  when  laying  plans  for  the  University, 
thought  of  his  own  struggles  at  Yale,  when  he  was 
often   handicapped   by   scholastic   red   tape,   and   so 


A  DEMOCRATIC  INSTITUTION  285 

decided  to  put  as  few  obstacles  as  possible  in  the  way 
of  those  eager  for  an  education. 

The  Temple  University  is  a  laboratory,  as  it  were, 
in  which  are  tested  out  the  educational  demands  of  the 
community.  These  vary  from  year  to  year.  It  is 
impossible  for  more  rigidly  organized  institutions  to 
adjust  themselves  as  quickly  to  these  ever-changing 
community  conditions  as  does  the  Temple  University, 
which  organizes  a  course  in  any  subject  whenever  a 
sufficient  number  of  students  apply.  A  record  is  kept 
of  all  applications  for  any  subject  of  instruction,  and 
a  class  is  formed  as  soon  as  the  demand  seems  to  war- 
rant it.  The  University  thus  meets  definite  educa- 
tional needs  in  a  practical  way,  as  it  has  from  the 
beginning,  when  it  undertook  to  meet  the  unsatisfied 
educational  needs  of  the  citizens  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  establishment  of  the  Law  School,  for  instance, 
shows  this  adaptability  to  needs.  On  a  warm  summer 
day  in  1894,  two  students  called  at  the  College  office, 
and  made  inquiry  as  to  a  course  in  law  at  night.  They 
were  told  that  there  was  no  law  course  and  no  law 
school  in  Philadelphia  at  that  time  open  to  students 
who  were  obliged  to  work  during  the  day  and  study 
at  night.  They  insisted  upon  being  taught,  and  were 
told  that  it  was  the  rule  of  the  College  not  to  begin 
any  new  course  or  to  give  any  new  branch  until  a  class 
of  at  least  six  were  assured;  that  if  they  desired  a 
night  course  in  law,  they  must  first  create  the  class  by 
getting  together  other  students  anxious  like  themselves 
for  a  legal  education. 

Nothing  further  was  heard  of  the  matter  until  early 
in  1895,  when  the  would-be  law  students  again  walked 
into  the  Dean^s  office  and  announced  that  they  had 
secured  the  class  and  wished  arrangements  made  for 
immediate  instruction.     The  demand  was  at  once  met 


286     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

by  the  College  authorities  by  the  founding  of  a  law 
school. 

The  Law  School  is  now  one  of  the  best  in  the  city 
and  graduates  have  been  exceptionally  successful  in 
passing  State  Board  examinations  with  the  highest 
honors  in  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey  and  other  states. 
Nearly  all  the  students  earn  their  living  while  pursuing 
the  law  course  and  many  of  the  graduates  are  now 
occupying  positions  of  special  prominence  in  the  legal 
profession  and  on  the  judicial  bench. 

But  the  University  endeavors  to  supply  any  need 
of  those  earnestly  seeking  a  broader  life.  Many  of 
its  special  courses  are  unique.  There  are  exception- 
ally good  courses,  for  instance,  in  salesmanship,  and 
in  real  estate  law  and  conveyancing,  in  advertising 
and  in  certified  public  accounting. 

There  is  a  particularly  interesting  special  course  in 
Modern  Municipal  Government.  It  is  designed  to 
review  and  compare  the  methods  of  city  government  as 
employed  in  the  leading  European  countries  and  in  the 
United  States.  The  problems  of  municipal  adminis- 
tration that  have  arisen  in  recent  times  concerning 
the  police,  the  water  supply,  sanitation,  education, 
and  poor  relief  are  explained  and  discussed.  The 
relations  between  city,  state  and  national  governments 
are  also  considered. 

Especial  attention  is  given  to  American  cities — 
their  unprecedented  growth;  their  inefficient  plans  of 
administration  as  compared  with  those  of  Europe; 
their  influence  upon  the  nation  as  a  whole;  and  the 
part  they  are  playing  in  assimilating  the  foreign  ele- 
ments in  the  population.  The  power  and  functions 
of  the  different  organs  of  city  government  are 
reviewed — the  mayor;  the  city  council;  the  adminis- 
trative  departments;    and   the   clerical   force.      The 


A  DEMOCRATIC   INSTITUTION  287 

various  reform  movements  and  plans  that  have  arisen 
in  recent  years  are  taken  up — the  agitation  for  a 
classified  civil  service;  the  short  ballot;  the  initia- 
tive; the  referendum  and  the  recall;  the  ''respon- 
sible mayor"  form  of  government;  city  government 
by  a  commission;    and  all  such  matters. 

In  quite  another  field,  but  just  as  much  needed, 
is  a  special  course  in  the  designing  and  cutting  of 
garments  for  men. 

But  these  special  branches  of  study  would  almost 
make  an  institution  in  themselves.  There  are  courses 
in  invalid  cooking;  social  service  work;  hand-loom 
weaving;  book-binding;  school  gardening;  story- 
telling; mechanical,  architectural  and  freehand  drawing 
and  designing;  surveying;  sheet  metal  work ;  strength 
of  materials;  plan  reading  and  estimating;  hydraulics; 
building  construction;  and  many  others.  In  addition 
there  are,  of  course,  all  the  regular  departments  of  a 
well-equipped  university. 

The  College  Department  has  a  regular  four  years' 
course  giving  the  cultural  subjects  leading  to  the 
degrees  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  and  Bachelor  of  Science. 
It  also  supplies  technical  courses  in  chemistry  and 
engineering,  leading  to  special  degrees  in  these  sub- 
jects. About  three-fifths  of  the  students  in  the  College 
Department  are  public  school  teachers  taking  advanced 
courses  either  for  cultural  values  or  as  an  aid  in 
increasing  their  efficiency  in  the  profession. 

The  Business  Department  is  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  successful  of  the  many  departments  of  the  Uni- 
versity. It  enrols  about  eight  hundred  students  and 
has  a  strong  and  numerous  body  of  alumni  actively 
engaged  in  the  business  world.  As  they  are  very 
fond  of  their  Alma  Mater,  they  are  influential  in 
securing  many  positions  for  Temple  University 
graduates. 


288     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

The  instruction  in  the  Department  of  Business  Edu- 
cation is  grouped  under  three  heads.  The  first  is  the 
elementary  course.  This  includes  stenography,  type- 
writing and  bookkeeping  for  those  persons  who  have 
had  only  the  advantage  of  a  grammar  school  educa- 
tion. The  second  grouping  includes  business  courses 
of  college  grade.  In  this  is  given  work  in  preparation 
for  the  higher  fields  of  business  activity;  for  secretarial 
positions  and,  in  connection  with  the  Teachers'  College, 
for  teaching  positions  in  high  schools  and  commercial 
colleges.  The  third  class  includes  courses  of  a  high 
character  for  specialized  work. 

Another  large  and  important  department  is  the 
Teachers'  College.  This  was  organized  by  the  group- 
ing together  of  several  normal  departments  which  had 
been  founded  much  earlier  in  the  history  of  the  insti- 
tution. These  special  normal  departments  have  now 
been  standardized. 

A  uniform  four  years'  high-school  course  is  required 
for  admission.  Uniform  standards  of  class  work  and 
unvarying  requirements  for  graduation  are  enforced. 
The  special  normal  courses  give  instruction  to  those 
preparing  for  teaching  in  elementary  schools,  high 
schools,  kindergartens  and  in  the  subjects  of  commer- 
cial branches,  household  science  and  art,  physical 
education,  manual  training,  music,  and  nurses'  train- 
ing. Beyond  these  special  normal  courses,  students 
have  the  privilege  of  working  for  two  additional  years 
and  obtaining  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science  in 
Education. 

The  Teachers'  College  not  only  prepares  instructors 
for  the  schools  mentioned  above,  but  it  qualifies  young 
men  and  young  women  to  assume  charge  of  recrea- 
tion centers — state  and  municipal — as  well  as  those 
organized  as  part  of  the  common  school  system;   to 


A  DEMOCRATIC   INSTITUTION  289 

supervise  school  gardens,  and  to  direct  classes  in  the 
handicrafts.  It  also  prepares  dietitians  for  hospitals; 
housekeepers  for  public  institutions;  heads  for  indus- 
trial establishments,  mothers'  assistants  and  visiting 
housekeepers. 

Model  schools  of  kindergartens  and  of  elementary 
grades  for  children  are  also  maintained  as  parts  of  the 
Teachers'  College  work.  All  candidates  for  graduation 
must  have  shown  their  ability  to  teach  by  actual  work 
in  the  classroom.  The  elementary  schools  are  main- 
tained as  a  basis  for  the  teachers'  training  work. 
They  have  also  been  able  to  test  educational  values, 
and  have  proved  that  the  work  of  the  elementary 
schools  can  be  very  readily  covered  in  seven  years,  as 
against  eight  elsewhere. 

The  High  School  Department  maintained  by  the 
University  is  a  helpful  part  of  the  University  work. 
Originally  it  held  only  evening  sessions,  but  it  now 
comprises  a  well-organized  day  school  as  well  as  largely- 
attended  evening  courses.  The  courses  are  maintained 
for  three  purposes:  First,  to  prepare  persons,  either  in 
the  day  or  evening,  for  entrance  to  colleges  and  pro- 
fessional schools,  or  for  the  passing  of  preliminary 
state  examinations  in  high-school  subjects;  second,  to 
furnish  the  general  cultural  education  given  in  the 
best  high-school  courses;  third,  to  furnish  a  practice 
school  in  which  the  students  in  the  Teachers'  College 
can  gain  experience  in  high-school  teaching.  In  only 
a  very  few  institutions  in  the  entire  country  is  there 
given  such  an  opportunity  for  practice  teaching  in  the 
high-school  grades. 

The  Theological  Department  is  unique  in  that  it  is 
interdenominational.  It  is  conducted  entirely  in  the 
evenings,  and  its  students  earn  and  pay  their  own  way. 
The   professors    of   strictly    theological    subjects   are 


290     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

successful  pastors  and  preachers.  Such  men  give  a 
broad  outlook  from  their  actual  experience  and  from 
close  association  with  advanced  church  methods. 

This  department  requires  a  college  degree  from  the 
Temple  University  or  from  some  other  institution  of 
equal  rank  for  entrance  upon  the  course  leading  to  the 
degree  of  Bachelor  of  Divinity.  But  it  also  offers 
special  courses  not  leading  to  the  degree.  A  success- 
ful special  course  has  been  one  in  the  study  of  the 
English  Bible,  designed  for  Sunday-school  teachers 
and  other  special  students. 

The  Department  of  Medicine  has  unusual  facihties 
for  giving  the  fullest  instruction  possible  to  its  students. 
Not  only  has  it  a  large  and  excellent  corps  of  pro- 
fessors, but  it  has  the  advantage  of  offering  clinical 
work  to  its  students  in  two  hospitals — the  Samaritan 
and  the  Garretson.  The  Garretson  Hospital  alone 
treats  on  an  average  about  two  thousand  surgical 
cases  a  month,  being  situated  near  one  of  the  city's 
greatest  industries — the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works. 
The  large  Samaritan  Hospital  reaches  a  more  general 
field  and  is  situated  in  beautiful  grounds  in  the  north- 
ern part  of  the  city.  The  proportion  of  teaching 
cases  per  student  is  higher  than  in  any  other  medical 
school  in  Pennsylvania. 

Another  feature  of  instruction  that  has  been  very 
successful  is  the  plan  of  correlation  in  the  study  of 
the  human  body.  Thus,  the  professor  in  physiology 
correlates  his  work  with  the  work  of  the  teacher  of 
anatomy,  and  these  with  the  instructors  in  pathology 
and  neiurology  and  other  departments.  The  brain, 
the  heart  and  the  digestive  organs  are  studied  at  one 
time  from  the  several  points  in  view. 

The  Nurses'  Training  courses  and  a  Companion 
Nurses'  course  are  maintained  at  the  Samaritan  Hos- 


A  DEMOCRATIC   INSTITUTION  291 

pital  and  at  the  Garretson  Hospital.  The  idea  of 
these  courses  is  not  only  to  train  young  women  for 
the  simpler  forms  of  nursing,  but  also  to  give  them  a 
useful  education  for  life,  and  to  train  them  for  admin- 
istrative positions  such  as  superintendents  of  hos- 
pitals, directresses  of  training  schools,  and  as  companion 
nurses. 

The  Dental  Department  of  Temple  University  is  the 
Philadelphia  Dental  College — one  of  the  oldest  and 
best  dental  institutions  in  America.  The  affiliation  of 
Temple  University  with  this  dental  college  brought 
into  the  University  a  well-organized  dental  course;  an 
experienced  faculty;  a  strong  body  of  students;  and 
a  large  and  loyal  alumni. 

Pharmacy  is  another  course  given  in  the  University. 
In  this  department  classes  meet  both  day  and  eve- 
ning. The  night  course  is  so  arranged  that  students 
can  be  employed  continuously  during  the  day  and 
receive  instruction  at  night. 

The  College  of  Music  was  organized  to  meet  the 
evident  need  among  the  musicians  of  Philadelphia  for 
training  along  advanced  theoretical  and  practical 
fines.  The  course  for  the  Bachelor's  Degree  comprises 
two  years  of  the  usual  cultural  college  course,  added 
to  which  are  two  years  of  work  in  theoretical  and 
practical  music. 

Those  requiring  preparatory  work  can  find  in  the 
Temple  University  their  needs  fully  met.  There  is  a 
college  preparatory;  medical  preparatory;  scientific 
preparatory;  law  preparatory;  theological  prepara- 
tory; dental  preparatory;  pharmacy  preparatory;  an 
English  course,  and  a  business  preparatory  course. 
Thus,  if  a  student  is  not  ready  to  enter  one  of  the 
higher  courses,  he  can  prepare  here  by  night  study  for 
them. 


292     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

In  fact,  there  are  very  few  needs  in  the  life  of  today 
that  the  Temple  University  does  not  meet.  A  child 
just  able  to  walk  can  enter  the  kindergarten  class  in 
the  day  department  and  receive  his  entire  schooling 
under  the  one  roof,  graduating  with  college  degrees, 
taking  special  university  courses,  or  fitting  himself  for 
business. 

The  tuition  fees  are  small.  The  charge  is  but  a 
few  dollars  for  each  branch,  for  the  school  year.  And 
the  student  pays  for  only  what  he  takes.  For  instance, 
if  he  wants  English  he  pays  a  fee  for  English,  and  no 
more.  If  he  merely  wants  history  he  pays  •  only  for 
history.  And  classes  are  so  arranged  that,  as  a  rule, 
he  can  take  his  instruction  during  hours  that  will 
suit  his  need. 

The  work  of  the  Temple  University  was  well  summed 
up  when,  at  a  large  public  banquet  in  Philadelphia,  in 
answering  to  the  toast,  ''What  Temple  University  has 
done  for  the  Public  School  System  of  Philadelphia,^' 
George  Wheeler,  Associate  Superintendent  of  Schools, 
said  that  it  has  brought  democracy  into  education, 
and  opened  the  door  of  opportunity,  so  that  no  talent 
need  go  undeveloped  for  the  lack  of  training.  That 
has  been  the  great  motive  from  the  start. 

As  the  work  has  progressed,  as  broader  and  broader 
channels  have  opened  by  which  its  usefulness  has 
reached  even  greater  numbers,  a  vision  has  dawned 
of  even  more  splendid  achievement.  Before  those 
who  are  working  for  the  welfare  of  this  university  of 
the  people  is  the  hope  of  a  great  central  institution 
with  branches  in  various  parts  of  the  city  near  the 
homes  of  the  workers.  It  is  planned  that  the  great 
system  shall  give  freely  to  those  who  have  little  money 
or  little  time  an  education  as  broad  and  as  thorough 
as  can  be  had  anywhere  in  the  land;   that  by  its  aid 


A  DEMOCRATIC   INSTITUTION  293 

any  one,  young  or  old,  can  acquire  any  knowledge  he 
wishes  either  for  pleasure  or  profit. 

In  a  word,  it  is  hoped  that  the  institution,  which  its 
builders  trust  to  see  eventually  arise,  shall  bring  to 
the  toilers  and  to  the  poor  of  the  world,  all  the  wealth 
of  knowledge  that  the  world  possesses.  It  is  a  vision 
of  a  great  university  with  classrooms  and  laboratories 
and  gymnasia  and  everything  needed  for  the  broaden- 
ing of  men's  minds  brought  to  the  very  doors  of  the 
people,  that  they  may  know  more  truly  and  use  more 
wisely  the  great  mystery,  life. 

And  those  whose  eyes  are  fixed  upon  the  vision  wish 
to  see  it  become  a  reality,  not  only  in  the  one  city  where 
it  has  already  taken  partial  form,  but  in  every  town  in 
the  country  where  there  are  hearts  hungering  for 
knowledge  and  spirits  eager  to  be  loosed  from  the 
bonds  of  ignorance. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

Helping  the  Sick  Poor 

The  Samaritan  and  Garretson  Hospitals.  Doctor 
Conwell  Tells  How  the  Samaritan  Hospital  Started. 
He  Gives  His  Ideas  of  True  Charity.  The  Unique 
Beginning  of  Garretson  Hospital.  The  Work  it 
Does  at  Present. 

INTO  the  busy  days  of  Russell  Conwell' s  early  pas- 
torate, when  a  new  church  was  being  built  and  a 
university  founded,  another  need  began  to  make 
itself  felt. 

His  pastoral  work  among  his  church  members  and 
others  of  the  neighborhood  brought  constantly  to  Doc- 
tor ConwelFs  mind  the  needs  of  the  sick  poor.  Scarcely 
a  week  passed  that  some  one  did  not  come  to  him  for 
help  for  those  who  were  ill  and  without  means  to  secure 
proper  medical  aid.  Accidents  too — both  among  his 
membership  and  in  the  families  of  the  neighborhood — 
were  numerous.  There  was  no  large,  well-equipped 
hospital  in  the  immediate  vicinity,  and  the  need  of 
one  in  this  section  of  the  city  began  to  be  borne  in 
upon  him.  And  then — as  in  the  case  of  the  Univer- 
sity— the  need  was  brought  to  him  in  immediate  and 
specific  form. 

Speaking  of  the  manner  in  which  the  Samaritan  Hos- 
pital came  to  be,  Doctor  Conwell  says:  ^'The  Samar- 
itan Hospital,  which  has  become  one  of  the  great 
agencies  for  the  healing  of  the  sick  poor  in  the  city  of 
Philadelphia,  has  been  one  of  those  mysterious  devel- 
opments which  it  is  impossible  to  account  for  in  the 

(294) 


HELPING  THE  SICK  POOR  295 

usual  conditions  of  life.  A  young  woman  was  seri- 
ously ill,  with  a  very  dangerous  and  somewhat  infec- 
tious disease  of  the  mouth.  Her  case  was  a  very 
disagreeable  and  difficult  one  to  care  for  in  the  home 
where  she  had  lived  as  an  orphan.  The  physician  in 
charge  suggested  to  me  that  the  only  reasonable  way 
to  care  for  the  poor,  afflicted  woman  was  to  hire  two 
rooms  in  the  upper  story  of  some  private  house  and 
put  her  in  charge  of  a  trained  nurse. 

''We  rented  two  such  rooms  and  that  one  patient 
and  those  two  rooms  were  the  beginning  of  the  Samar- 
itan Hospital  which  now  reaches  so  many  thousands 
of  the  poor  in  the  course  of  a  year,  because  we  soon 
hired  the  whole  house.  Then  we  purchased  it  with  a 
small  payment  down,  furnished  it  with  gifts  from  our 
congregation,  and  found  young  women  who  desired 
training  in  the  actual  practice  of  nursing.  Soon  we 
were  overwhelmed  with  physicians  who  offered  their 
services  free  in  such  work. 

''We  were  soon  so  crowded  that  we  were  encouraged 
to  purchase  the  adjoining  dwelling,  which  was  on  the 
corner  of  Broad  and  Ontario  Streets,  Philadelphia. 
That  we  also  purchased  with  a  small  payment  and  held 
for  some  time  on  a  large  mortgage.  Afterwards  we 
purchased  a  large  lot  north  on  Broad  Street  and  then 
a  similar  lot  on  Park  Avenue,  after  which  the  State 
of  Pennsylvania  came  forward  with  appropriations  for 
the  maintenance  of  the  hospital  in  its  efforts  to  care 
for  the  poor  people  of  the  state. 

"Then  one  building  after  another  arose  as  if  b}^ 
magic.  Money  came  in  from  unexpected  quarters, 
which,  with  some  special  subscriptions  on  the  part  of 
those  most  interested  in  the  hospital,  made  the  insti- 
tution a  permanent  part  of  the  humanitarian  work  of 
Philadelphia.      Like  all   the  other  institutions,   mis- 


296     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

sions  and  enterprises  which  our  church  undertook  to 
found  or  support,  it  started — as  in  the  creation — with 
nothing;  was  ^without  form  and  void/  and  grew  into 
something  by  a  mysterious  but  powerful  Providence 
which  seemed  to  push  us  on  with  the  work  beyond 
our  plans  or  highest  hopes.  Where  the  spirit  of  life  is, 
something  must  grow." 

In  speaking  of  the  hospital  and  its  work,  Doctor 
Conwell,  at  another  time,  said,  '^The  hospital  was 
founded,  and  this  property  purchased,  in  the  hope  that 
it  would  do  Christ's  work.  Not  simply  to  heal  for  the 
sake  of  professional  experience;  not  simply  to  cure 
disease  and  repair  broken  bones;  but  to  so  do  those 
charitable  acts  as  to  enforce  the  truth  Jesus  taught, 
that  God  'would  not  that  any  should  perish,  but  that 
all  should  come  unto  Him  and  live.^  Soul  and  body, 
both  need  the  healing  balm  of  Christianity.  The  hos- 
pital modestly  and  touchingly  furnishes  it  to  all 
classes,  creeds  and  ages  whose  sufferings  cause  them 
to  cry  out,  'Have  mercy  on  me.'" 

The  hospital  was  opened  February  1,  1892.  It  did 
not  take  long,  as  Doctor  Conwell  says,  to  prove  the 
need  of  the  work.  Before  the  end  of  that  year  it  was 
so  crowded  that  an  addition  had  to  be  built;  and  now 
magnificent  buildings  stand  adjoining  the  original 
house,  as  a  monument  to  the  untiring  work  and  zeal 
of  the  members  of  Grace  Baptist  Church  and  their 
friends. 

The  hospital  is  modern  in  every  way.  It  numbers 
on  its  staff  the  best  physicians  of  the  city — many  of 
them  well-known  specialists.  It  has  a  large  number 
of  free  beds  in  pleasant  wards;  also  some  semi-private 
rooms  and  many  private  rooms.  The  name  ''Samari- 
tan Hospital"  was  given  as  typical  of  its  work  and 
spirit;    for  its  projectors  and  supporters   laid   down 


HELPING  THE   SICK  POOR  297 

their  money  and  agreed  to  pay  whatever  might  be 
needed,  as  well  as  gave  of  their  personal  care  and 
attention  to  the  sufferer.  The  sick  poor  are  never 
turned  away  if  accommodations  can  possibly  be  pro- 
vided for  them.  Doctor  Conwell,  however,  does  not 
believe  in  indiscriminate  charity,  and  if  a  patient  can 
afford  to  pay,  even  a  small  sum,  he  is  encouraged  to  do 
so.  Doctor  Conwell  beUeves  it  would  be  wrong  to 
treat  such  people  free — an  injustice  to  physicians  as 
well  as  the  encouragement  of  a  wrong  spirit  in 
themselves. 

"Charity  is  composed  of  sympathy  and  self-sacri- 
fice,'' he  says.  "There  is  no  charity  without  a  union 
of  these  two.  To  make  a  gift  become  a  charity  the 
recipient  must  feel  that  it  is  given  out  of  sympathy; 
that  the  donor  has  made  a  sacrifice  to  give  it;  that  it 
is  intended  only  as  assistance  and  not  as  a  permanent 
support,  unless  the  needy  one  be  helpless;  and  that 
it  is  not  given  as  his  right.  To  accomphsh  this  end 
desired  by  charitable  hearts  demands  an  acquaint- 
ance with  the  persons  to  be  assisted  or  a  study  of  them, 
and  a  great  degree  of  caution  and  patience. 

"It  is  not  only  unnecessary  but  a  positive  wrong  to 
give  to  itinerant  beggars.  There  is  no  such  thing  as 
charity  about  a  so-called  state  charity.  It  is  states- 
manship to  rid  the  community  of  nuisances;  to  feed 
the  poor  and  prevent  stealing  and  robbery;  but  it 
should  not  be  called  a  charity.  The  paupers  take  their 
provisions  as  their  right;  feel  no  gratitude;  acquire 
no  ambition,  no  industry  and  no  culture. 

"The  state  almshouse  educates  the  brain  and  chills 
the  heart.  It  fastens  a  stigma  on  the  child  that  hinders 
and  curses  it  for  life.  Any  institution  supported 
otherwise  than  by  voluntary  contribution,  or  in  the 
hands  of  paid  public   officials,   can  never  have  the 


298     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

spirit  of  charity,  nor  be  correctly  called  a  charity. 
Public  charitable  institutions,  so-called,  are  not  chari- 
ties at  all;  the  motive  is  not  sympathy,  but  necessity. 
The  money  for  the  support  of  paupers  is  not  paid  with 
benevolent  intentions  by  the  taxpayers,  nor  do  the 
inmates  of  almshouses  so  receive  it.  I  have  been 
engaged  in  gathering  statistics  and  have  found  sixty- 
three  per  cent  of  all  persons  who  have  applied  for 
assistance  at  various  institutions  are  impostors;  and 
many  are  swindlers  and  professional  burglars." 

This  so-called  spirit  of  charity  is  not  found  at  Samar- 
itan Hospital;  but  there  is  a  deep,  true  sjmpathy  and 
desire  to  help.  A  spirit,  also,  that  is  quite  notice- 
able is  the  homelike  atmosphere  that  prevails.  This 
may  have  come  from  the  fact  that  the  hospital  started 
in  an  ordinary  house  and  thus  caught  at  the  inception 
the  home  spirit  which  has  never  left  it.  And  it  may 
have  come  from  the  motive  with  which  the  work  was 
taken  up.  But  however  it  came  to  be,  its  homelike 
air  is  marked.  Though  rules  are  strictly  enforced — 
as  they  must  be — there  is  a  feeling  of  personal  interest 
in  each  patient  that  makes  the  sick  one  feel  that  he  is 
something  more  than  a  '^case"  or  a  number. 

''The  lovely  Christ  spirit, '^  says  Doctor  Conwell, 
''which  inclines  men  and  women  to  care  for  their 
unfortunate  fellowmen,  is  especially  beautiful  when,  in 
addition  to  the  healing  of  wounds  and  disease,  the 
afflicted  sufferers  are  welcomed  to  such  a  home  as  the 
Samaritan  Hospital  has  become.  All  such  kind  deeds 
become  doubly  so  when  done  in  the  name  of  Christ, 
because  they  carry  with  them  sympathy  for  those  in 
pain;  love  for  the  loveless;  a  home  for  the  homeless; 
friendship  for  the  friendless ;  and  a  divine  solace  which 
are  often  more  than  surgical  skill  or  medical  science. 

*'Such  an  institution  the  Samaritan  Hospital  is  ever 


HELPING  THE  SICK  POOR  299 

to  be.  It  began  in  weakness  and  inexperience;  but 
with  Christian  devotion  and  affection  its  founders  and 
supporters  have  conquered  innumerable  difficulties, 
and  can  now  say  unreservedly  that  they  have  a  hospital 
with  all  the  conveniences  and  influences  of  a  Christian 
home." 

A  feature  that  carries  out  this  kindly  spirit  is  the 
arrangement  of  the  visiting  hours.  Doctor  Conwell 
knew  that  the  majority  of  the  patients  of  Samaritan 
Hospital  come  from  among  the  working  classes,  and 
that  their  friends  were  employed  during  the  day  and 
so  could  not  call  at  the  times  usually  set  aside  by  hos- 
pitals for  visitors.  So  he  arranged  visiting  hours  on 
Sunday  afternoons  and  in  the  evenings.  At  the 
present  time  there  is  a  visiting  hour  every  day  in  the 
week,  and  on  one  evening. 

The  Samaritan  Hospital  is  non-sectarian.  Suffer- 
ing and  need  are  the  only  requisites  for  admission. 
The  reports  show  that  among  those  who  are  cared  for 
are  Cathohcs,  Baptists,  Methodists,  Lutherans,  Epis- 
copalians, Presbyterians,  Hebrews,  members  of  the 
Society  of  Friends  and  of  the  Reformed  Church,  Con- 
gregationalists,  Moravians,  Mennonites,  Unitarians, 
Universalists  and  members  of  the  church  of  the  Latter- 
Day  Saints  and  of  the  United  Brethren. 

The  nativity  of  the  patients  shows  that  nearly  all 
countries  are  represented.  In  one  year  were  admitted, 
in  addition  to  native-born  Americans,  one  hundred 
and  forty-five  Germans,  seventy-three  English,  one 
hundred  and  fifty-eight  Russians,  one  hundred  and 
seventeen  sons  and  daughters  of  Ireland,  ninety-two 
Italians,  twenty-four  Scotchmen,  eleven  Canadians, 
eleven  Hungarians,  twelve  Poles,  five  Swiss,  six  French- 
men, nine  Swedes,  two  Armenians,  one  Porto  Rican, 
one    native    of    Holland,    four   Greeks,    twenty-two 


300     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Australians,    five    Norwegians,    one    Spaniard,    eight 
Roumanians  and  two  Indians. 

The  Samaritan  Hospital  is  not,  however,  the  only 
hospital  of  which  Doctor  Conwell  is  the  president,  and 
which  has  received  his  personal  interest  and  atten- 
tion. When  the  Temple  University  purchased  the 
property  and  assumed  the  administration  of  the 
Philadelphia  Dental  College  the  Garretson  Hospital, 
which  was  started  as  an  adjunct  to  the  Philadelphia 
Dental  College,  was  at  the  same  time  taken  over. 

This  hospital  had  rather  a  unique  beginning.  Just 
across  the  street  from  the  building  of  the  Philadelphia 
Dental  College  are  the  Baldwin  Locomotive  Works. 
Nearby  are  many  other  foundries  and  factories,  and 
through  this  section  run  the  tracks  of  the  Philadelphia 
and  Reading  Railway.  This  district  is  one  of  the  most 
important  industrial  centers  of  Philadelphia,  and 
accidents  are  continually  occurring. 

The  nearest  place  for  even  a  semblance  of  skilled 
medical  help  was  the  Philadelphia  Dental  College,  and 
here  the  bruised  and  burned  and  maimed  were  taken. 
Professors  and  students  did  the  best  they  could  to 
bind  up  the  injured  and  give  rehef,  and  frequently  sent 
for  physicians  and  nurses  among  their  friends  to  help. 
Rooms  in  the  Dental  College  were  turned  over  for  the 
use  of  these  cases;  and  thus,  what  is  now  Garretson 
Hospital,  came  into  existence. 

For  about  two  years  it  occupied  rooms  in  the  Dental 
College  and  depended  upon  the  generosity  of  the 
Dental  College  and  its  friends  for  the  medical  help  and 
nursing  required.  But  the  accident  cases  increased 
and  the  quarters  in  the  Dental  College  soon  became 
inadequate.  The  necessity  for  a  well-equipped  hos- 
pital in  that  section  became  only  too  apparent.  Then 
those    already    interested   went    to    work.      A    state 


HELPING  THE  SICK  POOR  301 

appropriation  was  secured,  and  in  1907  the  present 
building  was  erected.  At  first  the  capacity  was 
twenty-seven  beds;  but  the  demand  continued  to 
grow,  and  in  1911  the  hospital  was  enlarged  and  its 
bed  capacity  increased.  It  is  a  homelike,  cheery  place 
and  fills  a  great  need  in  the  section  in  which  it  is 
situated. 

In  regard  to  its  work  Doctor  Conwell  says:  ''It  has 
assisted  thousands  of  poor  workmen  and  their  fami- 
lies, and  will  go  on  through  the  ages  to  come,  probably, 
as  an  increasing  power  for  the  amelioration  of  mankind. 
Just  how  it  grew,  it  is  impossible  to  state,  as  the 
influences  which  assisted  in  its  upbuilding  were  as 
multifarious  as  those  seem  to  be  w^hich  surround  the 
growth  of  a  tree.  It  had  a  fertile  soil;  it  had  the 
seed  idea,  and  the  church,  under  God,  gave  it  the  sun- 
shine. Of  course,  like  the  Samaritan  Hospital,  it  soon 
outgrew  the  corporate  control  of  the  church  and 
became  as  completely  non-sectarian  as  any  institu- 
tion can  be  in  a  place  where  the  spirit  of  Christ  is  ever 
leading  people  to  prayer  and  to  good  deeds." 

Thus,  through  the  founding  of  the  Samaritan  Hos- 
pital and  the  development  of  the  Garretson,  the 
members  of  Grace  Baptist  Church  and  their  leader 
rendered  in  still  another  field  an  important  service  to 
the  people  of  Philadelphia.  These  institutions  are 
now  independent  organizations,  supported  and  helped 
largely  in  the  good  work  they  are  doing  by  the  gener- 
ously-inclined of  the  entire  city.  But  the  hospitals 
have  grown  into  their  present  great  usefulness  because 
this  earnest  body  of  workers  saw  a  need  of  humanity; 
were  willing  to  shoulder  the  burden  of  supplying  it; 
and  labored  and  sacrificed  to  do  so. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

Spreading  Visions 

How  the  Lecture  ^' Acres  of  Diamonds'^  has  Brought 
Fuller  Life  to  Many.  How  it  Helped  a  Salesman. 
How  it  has  Built  up  Towns.  Its  Voice  Within 
Prison  Walls.     The  Message  it  has  for  All. 

IN  a  train  speeding  toward  Philadelphia  sat  two  shoe 
salesmen  discussing  the  week's  business.  Orders 
had  been  numerous  and  large.     Commissions  would 

amount  to  a  good  sum.  They  figured  out  their 
profits  for  the  coming  week,  if  business  continued  so 
good,  and  were  in  a  highly  satisfied  state  of  mind. 

Across  the  aisle  from  them,  three  men  were  enthusi- 
astically talking  about  their  business.  They  owned  a 
factory  and  were  shipping  stuff  by  the  carload.  They, 
too,  were  figuring  their  profits,  and  these  also  came  to 
good  round  sums.  Their  business  was  prosperous. 
They  were  delighted  with  what  they  were  making  and 
with  the  prospects  for  the  future.  The  talk  ran  beyond 
their  factory  to  investments  in  general,  and  how  much 
one  could  ^' clean  up''  in  stocks  if  he  just  ^^knew  a  thing 
or  two."  Their  whole  thought  ran  moneyward.  Their 
chief  ambition  in  life,  like  that  of  the  shoe  salesmen, 
seemed  to  be  to  accumulate  a  bank  account. 

In  front  of  them  sat  Doctor  Conwell  on  his  way  home 
from  delivering  his  famous  lecture,  '^  Acres  of  Dia- 
monds." He  was  tired  from  lecturing  and  traveUng, 
for  he  had  been  speaking  every  night  for  a  week,  and 
traveling  during  the  day  to  the  next  place  on  his 
itinerary.     He  had  no  fat  commissions  for  his  labor. 

(302) 


SPREADING  VISIONS  303 

He  could  not  point  to  any  factory,  carloads  of  mate- 
rials, or  to  any  bank  account  as  the  result  of  his  efforts. 
He  had,  in  fact,  little  that  was  tangible  to  show  for 
what  he  had  done.  Compared  with  the  business  of 
these  other  men,  he  had  simply  been  spreading  visions; 
about  as  profitable,  some  might  think,  as  making 
rainbows. 

Yet  his  work  was  not  without  profit.  As  he  had 
entered  the  car  in  which  these  men  were  discussing 
with  such  elation  the  amount  of  money  they  had  made, 
a  man  had  approached  hun  with  his  face  alight  with 
gratitude  and  in  a  voice  vibrant  with  feeling  had  told 
him  how  this  lecture,  years  before,  had  started  him  on 
the  path  from  the  cheerless,  narrow  life  of  a  poor 
farmer's  boy  to  his  present  happy,  successful  work  as 
district  attorney  of  a  nearby  large  city. 

This  man  had  scarcely  passed  on  before  a  woman 
had  stopped  and  said  how  much  she  had  been  helped 
years  ago  by  the  lecture  and  how  her  life  had  been 
directed  into  happiness  and  usefulness  by  the  inspira- 
tion received  from  it. 

It  is  life  substance,  such  as  these  two  people  had  made 
that  is  the  profit  of  this  lecture,  rather  than  dollars 
and  cents.  To  these  two  he  had  given  a  vision.  To 
countless  others  he  had  done  the  same  thing.  In  those 
towns  in  which  he  had  just  lectured,  there  were  with- 
out doubt  farmers'  boys  who,  because  of  this  lecture, 
were  already  dreaming  of  larger  lives  and  greater  use- 
fulness than  they  had  glimpsed  before  they  heard*  it. 
There  were  clerks  whose  minds  were  more  alert  for  busi- 
ness opportunities  than  they  had  been.  There  were 
dressmakers'  assistants  who  were  studying  their  work 
and  its  possibilities  with  new  interest.  There  was,  in 
a  word,  an  awakening  to  new  accomplishments  and  an 
added  zest  to  life  on  the  part  of  many,  because  of  what 
they  had  heard. 


304     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

For  this  is  the  record  of  the  lecture.  If  the  life 
stories  of  all  who  had  been  helped  could  be  gathered, 
they  would  make  ready  reading  almost  too  incredible 
to  beheve. 

Writing  of  this  aspect  of  Doctor  Conwell's  work,  a 
well-known  public  man  of  Evanston,  Illinois,  says, 
''Have  you  or  your  friends  tried  to  compute  the  enor- 
mous influence  of  that  lecture  in  adding  to  the  wealth  of 
our  country?  I  have  seen  so  many  vivid  results,  and 
have  heard  of  so  many,  that  it  seems  one  of  the  great- 
est benefactions  of  our  age.  Enormous  is  a  conserva- 
tive word.  So  many  villages  have  become  cities 
directly  in  consequence  of  your  lecture;  so  many  indi- 
viduals and  societies  started  Ho  do  something'  for 
their  town;  so  many  manufacturing  enterprises  were 
begun  by  your  hearers;  so  many  rivers  harnessed; 
so  many  banks  established;  so  many  schools  and 
colleges  opened ;  so  many  churches  founded  and  others 
built;  so  many  young  men  and  women  started  into 
study;  so  many  discouraged  men  began  again;  so 
many  found  great  wealth  in  Hheir  backyards;'  so  many 
books  written;  so  many  charitable  enterprises  begun; 
so  many  orators  sent  on  the  platform;  so  many  of 
our  best  teachers  sent  into  schools;  so  many  reforms 
made  triumphant;  indeed,  so  much  good  done  by  that 
lecture  that  I  stand  amazed  at  the  accumulation." 

From  a  Pennsylvania  paper  comes  the  following: 
''It  was  the  lecture  of  Doctor  Con  well  on  'Acres  of 
Diamonds,'  delivered  in  Reynoldsville  fifteen  years 
ago,  that  inspired  a  group  of  Reynoldsville  men  to 
attempt  the  development  of  the  clay  and  shale  around 
Reynoldsville,  and  ultimately  resulted  in  the  founding 
of  the  Reynoldsville  Brick  and  Tile  Company,  an 
industry  that  has  operated  continuously  ever  since 
and  has  become  one  of  the  leading  industries  of  its 
kind  in  Western  Pennsylvania. 


SPREADING   VISIONS  305 

''In  substance,  the  theme  of  'Acres  of  Diamonds'  is 
that  people  Hstening  to  idle  tales  of  'easy  money'  to  be 
had  somewhere  far  away  are  apt  to  neglect  the  wealth 
that  lies  all  around  them  awaiting  development.  After 
the  lecture  in  Reynoldsville  that  night,  Doctor  John 
H.  Murray  and  Professor  G.  W.  Lenkerd  walked  home 
together  and  on  the  way  down  the  street,  Doctor  Mur- 
ray first  suggested  putting  into  practice  the  teaching 
of  Doctor  Conwell,  to  look  first  at  home  for  its  hidden 
treasures.  Local  people  had  long  talked  of  the  possi- 
bilities of  the  clay  fields  near  the  town,  but  no  one  had 
the  courage  to  proceed.  That  night  these  two  gentle- 
men laid  the  tentative  plans,  and  a  few  months  later 
called  a  meeting  of  a  dozen  other  progressive  citizens 
in  Doctor  Murray's  office,  and  there  was  started  the 
industry  which  has  since  brought  so  much  good  to 
Reynoldsville." 

Doctor  Conwell  hears  constantly  of  similar  results 
from  the  lecture.  While  at  dinner  one  day  at  his  farm 
in  Massachusetts,  a  telegram  was  brought  to  him  which 
read,  "Just  sold  my  first  sixteen  hundi'ed  plum  pud- 
dings." Someone  asked  what  the  telegram  meant, 
and  he  said  that  some  time  before  he  had  been  dining 
with  this  man  in  Iowa  and  his  host  had  said,  "I  have 
heard  your  lecture  for  six  years  and  I  have  yet  to  pick 
up  my  first  diamond." 

"I  had  just  been  served  with  some  excellent  plum 
pudding  and  I  replied :  '  If  I  had  a  wife  who  could  make 
as  good  a  plum  pudding  as  this,  I  wouldn't  look  any 
further  for  my  'Acres  of  Diamonds.'  He  took  the 
hint,"  Doctor  Conwell  continued,  "and,  according  to 
this  wire,  has  just  received  an  order  from  a  big  whole- 
sale grocery  firm  for  sixteen  hundred  puddings." 

In  one  Vermont  town  where  he  lectured,  a  young 
man — after  a  careful  study  of  the  products  of  the 

20 


306     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

neighborhood — said  he  beheved  the  lumber  of  that 
section  was  especially  adapted  to  the  making  of  coffins. 
A  sum  of  $20,000  was  raised,  the  water  power  harnessed, 
and  a  factory  started. 

A  man  in  Michigan  who  was  on  the  verge  of  bank- 
ruptcy, having  lost  heavily  in  real  estate,  heard  ^^  Acres 
of  Diamonds"  and  began — as  the  lecture  advises — 
right  at  home  to  rebuild  his  fortunes.  Instead  of  giving 
up,  he  went  into  the  same  business  again,  fought  a 
plucky  fight  and  is  now  president  of  the  bank  and  a 
leading  financier  of  the  town. 

A  poor  fanner  of  Western  Massachusetts,  finding  it 
impossible  to  make  a  living  on  his  stony  place,  had 
made  up  his  mind  to  move,  and  had  advertised  his 
farm  for  sale.  He  heard  "Acres  of  Diamonds,"  and 
took  to  heart  its  lesson  ''Raise  what  the  people  about 
you  need,"  it  said  to  him.  He  went  into  the  small 
fruit  business  and  is  now  a  rich  man. 

The  man  who  invented  the  turn-out  switch  system 
for  electric  cars  received  his  suggestion  from  ''Acres  of 
Diamonds." 

A  baker  once  heard  ''Acres  of  Diamonds,"  conceived 
a  plan  for  an  improved  oven  and  made  thousands  of 
dollars  from  it. 

A  teacher  in  Montrose,  Pennsylvania,  was  so 
impressed  with  the  practical  ideas  in  the  now  famous 
lecture  that  he  determined  to  teach  what  his  pupils 
most  needed  to  know.  Being  in  a  farming  district  he 
added  agricultural  chemistry  to  their  studies  with 
such  success  that  the  next  year  he  was  elected  principal 
of  one  of  the  Montrose  schools,  and  shortly  afterward 
was  appointed  superintendent  of  education  and  presi- 
dent of  the  State  University  of  Ohio. 

In  Clinton,  Massachusetts,  a  young  man  just  out  of 
prison  on  probation  heard  the  lecture  and  wrote  Doctor 


SPREADING  VISIONS  307 

Conwell  the  next  day  asking  if  he  thought  there  was 
any  chance  for  him,  with  the  stigma  of  prison  attached 
to  him,  to  make  a  success  of  Hfe.  Doctor  Conwell 
replied  in  his  usual  practical  fashion,  and  further  told 
the  man  to  stay  right  at  home  and  live  down  the  dis- 
grace. The  man  acted  upon  the  advice;  became  an 
honored  member  of  the  conmaunity  and  was  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  for  sixteen  years. 

On  the  shores  of  Lake  Michigan,  a  short  distance 
from  Chicago,  a  man  and  wife  had  about  given  up  all 
hope  of  making  the  farm  pay.  They  heard  ^' Acres  of 
Diamonds,"  and  the  wife  decided  to  make  one  more 
effort.  The  husband,  however,  was  completely  dis- 
couraged and  w^ould  not  make  the  attempt.  He  found 
work  in  Chicago  but  the  wife,  believing  her  ''Acres  of 
Diamonds"  were  right  there  on  the  farm,  clung  to  it. 
Today  she  counts,  as  her  net  profits  from  the  farm, 
$2,000,000.  She  is  an  authority  on  stock  raising;  her 
cattle  bring  top-notch  prices;  and  her  certified  milk  is 
sold  throughout  Chicago  and  its  suburbs. 

In  a  Maryland  town  in  which  Doctor  Conwell  was  to 
lecture,  a  storm  had  blown  the  roof  off  the  hall.  The 
lecture  was  postponed  and  given  the  next  day,  which 
happened  to  be  Sunday,  in  a  church.  The  pastor  of 
the  church  did  not  altogether  approve  of  the  proceed- 
ing. He  felt  that  a  lecture  should  not  be  given  on 
Sunday,  and  purposely  stayed  away.  Out  of  respect 
for  his  feelings  Doctor  Conwell  made  the  lecture  as 
much  like  a  sermon  as  possible;  though,  as  it  is  intended 
primarily  to  help  people,  he  does  not  feel  that  it  is 
irreligious. 

Doctor  Conwell  had  been  told  that  the  church  in 
which  he  was  to  lecture  was  badly  in  debt,  and  that  the 
outlook  for  its  existence  was  rather  gloomy.  In  that 
part  of  the  lecture  w^here  he  tells  how  citizens  may  help 


308     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

a  town,  he  pictured  what  the  upbuilding  of  that  church 
would  mean  to  the  community.  He  said  that  if  fifty 
people  would  give  a  certain  amount  each,  the  church 
could  be  cleared  of  debt  and  go  forward  to  do  useful 
work  in  the  community.  ^'And  then,"  said  Doctor 
Con  well,  in  speaking  of  the  incident,  ''I  had  a  feeling 
that  I  ought  then  and  there  to  make  an  appeal  for 
help.  I  did,  with  the  result  that  forty-one  out  of  the 
needed  fifty  pledges  were  made,  and  I  learned  afterward 
that  the  church  was  cleared  of  debt,  enlarged,  and  is 
now  one  of  the  most  successful  in  the  town.'^ 

A  man  from  Detroit  writes:  ''On  your  last  trip  to 
Detroit  I  was  present  at  your  lecture,  'Acres  of  Dia- 
monds, '  and,  needless  to  say,  I  was  greatly  inspired  by 
it,  as  were  also  some  brother  salesmen  who  accom- 
panied me.  When  my  wife  and  I  went  home  that 
evening  we  discussed  the  possibility  of  finding  some 
'  sure  enough '  diamonds  here  in  Detroit.  I  am  a  sales- 
man for  a  well-known  device  for  writing  checks — such 
as  your  banks  in  Philadelphia  use.  Well,  a  few  days 
after  your  lecture  here,  I  was  calling  on  a  prospect  in 
one  of  the  office  buildings,  when  it  was  suggested  that 
I  interview  a  certain  professional  man  in  that  building. 
I  called  on  this  man  and  sold  him  one  of  our  devices, 
whereupon  he  asked  me  why  I  didn't  call  on  all  the  other 
men  in  town  in  the  same  line.  I  took  a  list  of  a  few 
of  these  men  and  sold  to  most  of  them. 

"Then  I  began  an  investigation,  the  result  of  which 
is  that  there  are  something  like  175,000  uncalled-on 
prospects — all  high-grade  men,  and  men  who  are 
making  big  incomes — just  the  very  kind  who  need  a 
device  for  the  protection  of  their  checks.  I  at  once 
began  to  specialize  on  this  class  of  prospects  to  the 
exclusion  of  all  other  work.  This  I  did  for  over  three 
months,  meeting  with  such  fine  success  that  our  com- 


SPREADING   VISIONS  309 

pany  recently  has  sent  me  out  to  the  various  large  city 
offices  to  instruct  our  salesmen  in  selling  to  this  new 
line  of  prospective  customers. 

'^A  few  weeks  ago  I  visited  your  own  city,  where  I 
found  over  five  thousand  professional  men  of  the  class 
mentioned,  none  of  whom  had  ever  been  sold  to,  and 
I  instructed  the  local  men  there  how  to  approach  and 
sell  these  men.  We  expect  that  two  men  will  be  kept 
busy  on  this  line  of  work  alone  for  many  months  right 
in  Philadelphia,  and  that  other  salesmen  all  over  the 
United  States  will  be  likewise  engaged  for  the  remainder 
of  1916;  furthermore,  we  anticipate  that  the  men 
engaged  in  this  special  work  will  earn  in  commissions 
$100,000. 

"And  your  auditor  of  last  fall  is  now  going  around 
the  country  translating  your  lecture  into  the  terms  of 
our  business  and  showing  our  salesmen  that  truly  there 
are  'Acres  of  Diamonds'  in  their  own  localities.  I  may 
say  that,  in  giving  my  little  talk  to  our  selling  organiza- 
tion, I  mentioned  that  my  own  researches  were  inspired 
by  your  great  lecture.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  of  quoting  from  your  wonderful  lecture 
in  my  own  little  talk,  which  I  call  'Nuggets  of  Gold.' 
Thus  does  your  work  go  on.  Of  course,  in  all  these 
years  your  mail  has  been  filled  with  such  letters  of 
appreciation  as  this  from  all  over  the  country,  but  I 
know  that  you  will  be  glad  to  have  this  one  additional 
message  of  thanks  from  me." 

From  Massachusetts  Agricultural  College  comes  the 
following:  "I  have  just  been  reading  the  lecture, 
'Acres  of  Diamonds,'  and  would  like  to  say  that  it 
has  inspired  me  very  much.  I  have  heard  you  deliver 
the  lecture  two  or  three  timies,  so  that  I  can  compre- 
hend its  significance  much  more,  and  I  want  to  thank 
you  for  the  help  it  has  given  me  and  the  help  it  will 
give  me. 


310     RUSSELL  H.  CON  WELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

^'Only  the  other  day,  in  talking  with  my  father  about 
the  lecture,  he  said  that  he  had  endeavored  to  live  his 
hfe  according  to  several  of  the  things  which  you  brought 
out  in  the  lecture,  and  that  he  had  obtained  more  help 
from  that  one  lecture  than  from  any  other  he  had  ever 
heard.'^ 

From  Texas  a  young  man  writes:  '^During  my 
college  days  I  heard  your  wonderful  lecture  at  Waco, 
Texas,  and  it  has  been  my  ideal  and  inspiration  ever 
since.  My  heart  moves  me  to  say  how  deeply  it  has 
inspired  me.  I  can  never  be  the  same,  but  a  better 
and  a  more  determined  man. 

''Tonight  I  am  planning  and  dreaming  of  larger 
usefulness,  and  shall  tomorrow  go  forth  with  increased 
energy  to  minister  to  my  noble  congregation  and  to  the 
world,  because  I  have  been  fired  by  'Acres  of  Diamonds.^ 
It  has  been  my  joyful  experience  to  work  for  an  educa- 
tion, and  now  I  am  the  grateful  pastor  of  a  congrega- 
tion of  five  hundred  people  and  just  thirty-six  years  of 
age.  If  I  ever  reach  a  place  of  large  usefulness,  your 
life  and  lecture  will  have  a  big  part  in  the  inspiration 
that  moves  me  onward  and  upward." 

From  a  prison  in  California  comes  a  letter  which 
shows  that  the  vision  has  reached  even  within  prison 
walls,  and  is  holding  out  a  hope  to  one  who  has  made 
a  mistake  in  life,  but  desires  to  retrieve  it :  "I  am  taking 
this  liberty  to  address  you  in  regards  to  'Acres  of 
Diamonds. '  I  have  heard  so  much  about  it  and  read 
so  much  about  it,  that  I  was  glad  to  find  your  address 
in  this  issue  of  the  Christian  Endeavor  World. 

"As  you  will  see,  I  am  at  present  confined  in  the 
state  prison  at  Folsom.  For  which  no  one  is  to  blame 
but  myself,  as  I  had  every  opportunity  in  the  world  to 
keep  away  from  places  of  this  kind.  However,  expe- 
rience is  a  great  teacher  and  I  know  I  have  learned  my 


SPREADING   VISIONS  311 

lesson.  I  am  writing  to  ask  if  you  would  kindly  send 
me  a  copy  of  the  lecture,  as  I  am  very  anxious  to  read 
it,  and  I  hope  it  may  help  me  to  better  usefulness  when 
I  get  out." 

A  bank  cashier  of  North  Carolina,  while  attending 
the  lecture,  sat  directly  behind  a  lady  who  was  wearing 
a  very  large  hat.  When,  in  the  course  of  the  lecture, 
Doctor  Con  well  said,  ''Your  wealth  is  too  near  you; 
you  are  looking  right  over  it,"  the  bank  cashier  leaned 
over  to  a  friend  and  whispered,  ''My  wealth  must  be 
in  that  hat."  A  Httle  later  on  in  the  lecture.  Doctor 
Conwell  remarked,  ""^Tierever  there  is  a  human  need 
there  is  a  great  fortune."  The  bank  cashier  was  still 
studying  the  hat,  not  being  able  to  see  much  else,  and 
at  this  remark  the  idea  of  a  better  hatpin  than  the 
one  the  woman  was  using  flashed  upon  him.  The  pin 
is  now  being  manufactured  and  he  was  offered  $55,000 
for  the  patent. 

A  man  in  Ohio  who  has  today,  clear  of  all  indebted- 
ness, factories  valued  at  $700,000  was  not  worth  a  cent 
when  he  heard  "Acres  of  Diamonds."  He  went  from 
the  lecture  hall  determined  to  find  some  diamonds  right 
at  home.  His  present  business  attests  the  success  of 
his  search. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  similar  incidents.  In  every  state  in  the  Union  and 
in  many  countries  abroad  are  hundreds  and  hundreds  of 
men  and  women  whose  lives  have  been  directly  affected 
by  hearing  "Acres  of  Diamonds."  Such  results  show 
it  to  be  a  lecture  out  of  the  ordinary.  Rarely,  if  ever, 
has  any  other  lecture  produced  such  practical  effects 
in  such  an  almost  incalculable  number  of  instances. 

The  lecture  is  the  outcome  of  Doctor  Conwell's 
practical  view  of  life.  He  follows  his  own  motto, 
"Supply  a  need."     He  saw  all  about  him,  in  his  news 


y 


312     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

paper  and  legal  work  in  the  early  days,  and  later  in  his 
religious  and  educational  activities,  lives — especially 
those  of  the  young — dwarfed,  cramped,  and  not  open- 
ing out  in  any  degree  to  what  they  might  be.  He  saw 
communities  needing  certain  enterprises.  He  saw 
opportunities  everywhere  for  undertakings  that  would 
mean  much  to  the  individual  and  to  society.  And  so 
he  supplied  the  inspiration  and  the  vision  that  led  from 
a  narrow,  unproductive  life  to  largeness  and  richness. 

He  supplied  the  practical  suggestions  that  have 
brought  development  and  modern  comforts  and  enter- 
prise to  towns  and  country  throughout  the  length  and 
breadth  of  the  land.  And  he  has  also  himself  demon- 
strated in  this  lecture  what  he  preaches.  In  supplying 
this  need  he  has  made  a  tremendous  success — a  success 
so  far  above  financial  returns,  though  these  have  been 
great,  that  they  are  not  even  considered.  For  its  suc- 
cess has  to  do  with  the  lives  of  men  and  women — 
countless  thousands  of  them — who  have  been  led  to 
useful,  happy  careers  and  a  fuller  realization  of  life 
because  of  the  vision  of  what  they  might  do  that  was 
given  to  them  by  ^^  Acres  of  Diamonds.'^ 


CHAPTER  XXXII 

The  History  of  ''Acres  of  Diamonds" 

The  First  Time  ^^  Acres  of  Diamonds^*  was  Delivered, 
Its  Present  Great  Popularity.  What  it  has  Earned. 
The  Number  of  Students  Helped.  Doctor  Conwell 
Tells  how  He  came  to  Give  the  Proceeds  of  the  Lecture 
to  Poor  Students.     Incidents  of  Lecture  Trips. 

IT  is  a  far  cry  from  the  little  Methodist  church  in 
Westfield,  Massachusetts — where  ''Acres  of  Dia- 
monds" was  first  given  to  an  audience  of  a  few 
hundred  in  1861 — to  the  Academy  of  Music,  Phila- 
delphia, packed  from  floor  to  roof  with  a  brilliant 
gathering  of  thousands  of  the  city's  representative  men 
and  women,  where  this  lecture  was  given  for  the  five 
thousandth  time  on  Doctor  Conwell's  seventieth 
birthday. 

Yet  such  has  been  the  history  of  this  lecture,  which 
has  now  been  delivered  close  to  six  thousand  times; 
and  this  figure  will  soon  be  passed,  for  the  demand  for 
it  never  ceases.  Little  did  the  tall,  lanky  boy  of  nine- 
teen who  mounted  the  little  platform  of  that  church  and 
spoke  upon,  "Heroes  at  Home,"  dream  what  was  in 
store  for  him  and  the  lecture  he  was  giving.  Little  did 
he  foresee  how  it  would  affect  the  lives  of  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  people;  nor  the  influence  it  would 
have  upon  the  industries  of  this  country. 

In  this,  more  than  half  a  century  since  the  lecture 
was  first  given,  it  has  been  delivered  on  a  globe-circling 
tour  that  has  embraced  all  the  large  cities  of  the  lead- 
ing foreign  countries.     It  has  been  given  in  every  state 

(313) 


314     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

in  the  Union — in  large  cities  and  in  small  cities.  It 
has  been  delivered  in  the  same  town  over  and  over 
again;  and,  in  one  city  in  Massachusetts,  it  has  been 
repeated  twenty-one  times.  In  one  year  alone,  it  was 
delivered  more  than  three  hundred  times.  Speaking  of 
its  popularity,  a  writer  in  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  says: 

'^Although  ^ Acres  of  Diamonds'  has  been  delivered 
in  all  parts  of  the  world,  the  people  never  tire  of  it. 
It  is  a  wonderful  lecture  of  uplift — an  exhortation  to 
men  and  women  to  make  the  most  of  themselves  and 
to  do  something  to  contribute  to  the  advancement  of 
mankind  in  whatever  situation  they  find  themselves. 
Hundreds  of  fortunes  have  been  made  as  a  result  of  the 
inspiration  of  this  lecture." 

Second  only  in  uniqueness  to  the  good  it  has  done  is 
the  fact  that  every  dollar  made  from  it  has  been  given 
away.  The  total  amount  earned  by  this  lecture  for  the 
last  forty  years  has  gone  to  the  education  of  poor 
students.  Although  it  has  broadened  and  enriched 
the  lives  of  those  who  have  been  inspired  by  it  to  do 
some  special  work;  and  has  built  mills  and  factories 
and  foundries  and  towns,  its  greatest  work  has  been 
the  building  of  man.  Of  this  aspect  of  its  work  the 
Hon.  John  Wanamaker  in  an  address  said : 

^'Doctor  Conwell  is  a  great  citizen  who  cannot  be 
matched  in  this  or  any  other  state.  How  proud  and 
thankful  is  Philadelphia  to  own  him!  He  had  the 
vision  years  ago,  not  of  building  buildings,  but  of 
building  men — citizenship. '^ 

It  is  no  inconsiderable  sum  that  Doctor  Conwell  has 
thus  laboriously  earned  and  given  away.  Some  one 
with  a  mathematical  turn  of  mind  has  estimated  what 
the  proceeds  from  this  lecture  would  be  had  Doctor 
Conwell  kept  the  money  for  himself  and  invested  it. 
The  sum  runs  close  to  $8,000,000.     Yet,  until  some 


HISTORY   OF   ''ACRES   OF   DIAMONDS"      315 

one  computed  it,  Doctor  Conwell  did  not  know  how 
much  he  had  distributed.  As  soon  as  his  lecture  fee 
is  given  him,  he  forwards  it  to  the  student  for  whom 
that  especial  lecture  was  given,  crosses  the  name  off 
his  list,  and  forgets  it.  Thus  he  had  never  formed  an 
idea  of  the  total  amount  given,  until  some  one  just 
from  curiosity  figured  it  out  and  told  him. 

The  number  of  young  men  helped  is  close  to  the  ten 
thousand  mark.  The  money  given  means  a  year 
added  to  their  life  work.  So,  one  might  say  ten  thou- 
sand years  of  good  purposeful  work  has  been  added  to 
the  present  generation  by  the  munificence  of  this  one 
man  who  has  labored  day  and  night — in  winter  cold 
and  summer  heat — well  into  old  age  to  do  this  work. 
This  in  itself  is  an  unique  fruitage  for  a  single  lecture. 
It  is  doubtful  if  any  lecture  ever  given  can  point  to  a 
similar  record.  Speaking  of  it,  an  editorial  writer  in 
a  Philadelphia  newspaper  says: 

^'No  man  can  reckon  the  indebtedness  of  Philadel- 
phia to  this  admirable  citizen  who  might  have  been  a 
plutocrat,  but  chose  instead,  for  the  sake  of  others,  to 
reserve  only  a  modest  competency  for  himself  out  of  all 
the  vast  accumulation.  His  satisfaction  as  he  looks 
back  over  the  course  of  his  life  must  be  keen,  when  he 
thinks  of  the  gratitude  he  has  earned,  where  others 
were  content  to  earn  and  hoard  mere  dollars.  This 
man's  golden  treasury  is  reckoned  in  the  bright  mint- 
age of  ever-living  gratitude  for  lives  enabled  to  reach 
their  fullest  development  of  usefulness.'' 

As  this  writer  intimates,  it  is  not  figures  that  most 
forcefully  tell  what  this  help  means  in  the  life  of  the 
one  receiving  it.  It  is  the  actual  life-stories  of  the 
men  and  women  who  have  been  aided  that  give  the 
best  picture.  Now  and  then,  one  runs  across  these 
experiences. 


316     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

When  it  was  known  in  a  city  of  the  Middle  West  that 
Doctor  Conwell  was  to  lecture  there,  the  Congrega- 
tional minister  of  the  town  asked  for  the  privilege  of 
introducing  him  to  the  audience.  He  was  so  earnest 
in  his  request  that  the  lecture  committee  felt  he  either 
must  be  a  very  old  friend  of  Doctor  Conwell's,  or  that 
there  must  be  some  special  reason  for  the  request,  and 
so  granted  it. 

When  the  time  came  for  Doctor  Conwell  to  be  intro- 
duced, the  man  rose  and  told  how  he  had  been  helped 
through  college  by  the  speaker  of  the  evening,  and 
what  this  had  meant  to  him  in  his  straightened  cir- 
cumstances So  deeply  affected  was  he  in  recalling 
this  help  that  had  come  to  him  at  a  critical  time  that 
he  was  unable  to  proceed  and  was  compelled  to  leave 
the  platform. 

At  the  close  of  another  lecture  in  an  Eastern  state  a 
young  man  came  up  and,  with  a  face  glowing  with 
gratitude,  said  he  was  one  of  Doctor  Conwell's  ''boys;" 
that  he  had  been  helped  through  college  by  a  lecture 
check;  that  he  was  now  principal  of  the  high  school 
of  the  town  and  looking  forward  to  greater  achieve- 
ments in  his  field  of  work. 

Glimpses  such  as  these  into  the  lives  of  those  who 
have  been  helped  mean  much  more  than  figures  in 
reckoning  the  good  this  lecture  has  done.  And  possi- 
bly every  one  of  the  ten  thousand  assisted  could  tell 
of  some  such  pathetic  struggle,  or  of  a  critical  moment 
when  the  aid  received  meant  all  the  difference  between 
success  and  failure;  between  a  bright,  useful  future,  or 
an  unfulfilled  career. 

In  a  reminiscent  mood  one  day  Doctor  Conwell  told 
how  he  came  to  devote  the  proceeds  of  this  and  other 
lectures  to  helping  students:  "I  had  been  visiting  the 
scenes  of  my  own  college  days  at  Yale.     As  I  stood  in 


HISTORY  OF   "ACRES   OF  DIAMONDS"      317 

the  room  where  I  had  lived  in  such  poverty,  as  I  went 
through  the  dining-room  and  kitchen  of  the  house 
where,  in  the  old  days,  I  had  to  be  on  duty  at  four- 
thirty  in  the  morning  to  help  make  everything  ready; 
as  I  went  through  the  college  halls  and  classrooms 
where  I  had  shunned  my  classmates  because  of  my 
shabby,  ragged  clothes,  I  thought  of  those  hard,  bitter 
days  of  work  and  poverty;  of  the  long,  exhausting 
hours  I  was  compelled  to  spend  in  working  and  strug- 
gling; of  my  humiliation  and  keen  suffering  of  mind 
and  spirit  at  my  appearance  and  need,  compared  with 
the  rich  boys  about  me. 

''I  traveled  on  to  Boston,  but  the  picture  of  those 
days  and  all  I  had  suffered  stayed  with  me.  I  went  to 
Tremont  Temple  Church.  No  one  was  in  it.  In  the 
twilight  gloom  of  that  great  church  and  the  stillness 
that  reigned  there,  I  knelt  and  vowed  to  give  thence- 
forth the  proceeds  from  my  lectures  to  poor  students, 
so  that  at  least  some  of  those  struggling  for  an  educa- 
tion might  never  know  the  suffering  and  humiliation 
I  had  endured." 

Doctor  Conwell's  mail  is  filled  with  requests  for  help. 
In  one  day  recently  he  received  eighty-three  letters 
asking  for  assistance  to  get  through  college.  ''WTien 
I  receive  these  letters,"  he  said,  despondently,  ^'I  feel 
that  what  I  do  is  of  no  use  whatever.  It  is  but  a  drop 
in  the  bucket.  Where  there  is  such  tremendous  need, 
what  one  person  does  seems  scarcely  to  make  any 
impression." 

But  this  very  demand  shows  how  great  is  the  need, 
and  how  eager  are  unknown  thousands  for  an  education. 
This  same  great  thirst  for  knowledge  is  shown  by  the 
prompt  response  made  to  the  opportunities  offered 
by  the  Temple  University.  Some  day,  perhaps,  the- 
vision  of  Doctor  Conwell  for  universities  everywhere 


318     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

within  the  reach  and  means  of  the  people  will  be 
reahzed.  In  a  recent  article  upon  Doctor  Conwell's 
work,  a  writer  has  said,  ^'Doctor  Conwell  by  the  use 
of  his  lecture  fund,  and  the  conduct  of  his  University, 
has  given  more  than  91,000  young  people  a  college 
education  they  could  not  otherwise  have  obtained.'^ 
These  figures  speak  more  eloquently  than  can  pen  or 
tongue  of  the  vast  army  of  young  people  in  the  United 
States  eager  for  higher  education. 

In  passing  it  may  be  remarked  that  Doctor  Con- 
well's  true  insight  into  the  desire  for  education  on  the 
part  of  many  has  been  proved  by  another  educational 
work  which  owes  its  inception  to  him.  Upon  a  trip 
abroad.  Doctor  and  Mrs.  Conwell  had  as  their  guest 
Miss  Sophia  B.  Packard.  While  the  party  were  wait- 
ing in  St.  Peter's  for  the  music  to  begin.  Doctor 
Conwell  read  a  letter  from  a  friend  in  Atlanta,  Georgia, 
upon  the  need  there  for  a  school  for  young  colored 
girls.  When  he  finished  the  letter,  he  handed  it  to 
Miss  Packard.  Upon  reading  it,  she  said,  ^'I  would 
like  to  help  in  such  a  work."  Upon  his  return  to 
America,  Doctor  Conwell  sent  Miss  Packard  to  Atlanta 
to  see  if  such  a  school  would  be  advisable.  Upon  her 
favorable  report,  he  secured  the  use  of  the  government 
barracks,  and  thus  the  Spellman  Academy  for  colored 
women  was  started.  This  is  now  one  of  the  foremost 
institutions  in  the  South  for  the  education  of  women 
of  the  colored  race  and  was  recently  endowed  by 
Rockefeller. 

There  is,  however,  a  reverse  side  to  the  picture  which 
the  public  does  not  see  and  of  which,  perhaps,  those 
who  have  been  helped  do  not  often  think.  All  of  this 
work  is  not  done — all  of  this  money  that  is  so  gener- 
ously given  away  is  not  earned — without  hard  toil; 
without  hardship,  exposure,  tiresome  delays,  annoy- 


HISTORY   OF   "ACRES   OF  DIAMONDS"      319 

ances,  worry,  and  anxiety  that  many  would  not  endure 
year  in  and  year  out,  even  for  their  own  profit. 

One  may  in  a  moment  of  exaltation  be  burned  at  the 
stake,  or  suffer  the  ^' pangs  of  fiery  darts"  for  an  ideal. 
But  to  travel  for  fifty  years  on  all  kinds  of  railroads; 
to  wait  at  little  junctions  for  hours  for  trains;  to  endure 
by  reason  of  mishaps  indifferent  accommodations  and 
unpalatable  food;  to  travel  often  for  half  a  day  with- 
out food  and  then — because  of  delay — to  be  compelled 
to  go  directly  from  the  train  to  the  lecture  hall  and 
there  speak  for  two  hours;  to  suffer  all  of  these  dis- 
comforts simply  to  benefit  others  requires  fidelity  to 
an  ideal  of  a  high  order. 

These  are  common  incidents  of  travel,  as  almost 
every  one  knows.  All  who  have  journeyed  much  have 
endured  them;  but  when  they  are  repeated  in  one's 
experience,  every  year  for  more  than  fifty  years,  they 
become  a  trifle  wearisome.  It  takes  grim  endurance 
and  constancy  to  a  high  purpose  to  continue  to  suffer 
them.  The  anxiety  to  make  connections  is  one  of  the 
most  wearing  of  these  experiences.  Doctor  Conwell 
has  no  time  to  waste,  so  he  has  to  make  as  close  con- 
nections as  possible. 

Once,  when  lecturing  in  the  West,  his  train  was  late 
and  the  one  with  which  he  was  to  connect  had  gone. 
The  lecture  he  was  to  give  was  an  important  one,  from 
the  financial  point  of  view,  for  the  fee  was  five  hundred 
dollars  and  it  was  already  promised.  He  had  no 
bank  account  to  draw  upon  to  make  up  for  the  loss. 
Besides,  he  never  disappoints  an  audience  if  it  is  within 
human  possibility  to  keep  his  engagement. 

With  the  aid  of  a  porter  for  whom  he  had  once  done 
a  kindness,  he  was  able  at  last  to  find  various  railroad 
officials  who  interested  themselves  in  his  plight.  It 
was  discovered  that  a  freight  train  was  about  to  leave 


320      RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

a  freight  yard  for  the  town  where  he  was  to  lecture, 
and  he  was  given  permission  to  travel  on  it.  It  was 
held  until  he  could  reach  it  and,  with  much  switching 
and  jolting,  and  not  without  some  enjoyment  of  the 
company  of  the  brakeman  in  the  caboose,  he  finally 
reached  his  destination  and  delivered  his  lecture. 

At  another  time  when  he  missed  connection,  ^ 
special  train  was  made  up  for  him.  He  rode  in  the 
engine,  became  interested  in  the  fireman  and  eventually 
sent  the  man  through  college.  He  is  now  a  judge  in 
Arkansas.  Upon  one  of  these  occasions,  when  he 
missed  connections,  he  hired  a  team  to  take  him  to  the 
town  where  he  was  to  speak.  He  had  to  drive  fast  to 
be  on  time,  and  as  he  reached  the  lecture  hall  he  hur- 
riedly leaped  out,  caught  his  foot  in  the  reins,  fell  and 
broke  his  arm.  But  he  did  not  cancel  the  lecture. 
He  went  into  an  anteroom,  bound  up  the  arm  as  best 
he  could,  and  gave  the  address. 

Instead  of  missing  connections,  sometimes  there  is  a 
long  wait.  Usually  these  waits  are  at  some  little  junc- 
tion where  there  is  nothing  but  the  station — the  sort  of 
place  which,  as  some  one  has  said,  puts  junk  into 
junction.  At  one  such  station  on  one  of  his  trips  there 
was  a  long  wait.  A  blizzard  had  piled  snow-drifts  all 
about.  There  was  nothing  to  do  but  accept  the  care- 
fully sectioned-off  seats;  the  red-hot  stove;  the 
hermetically-sealed  windows;  and  listen  to  the  monot- 
onous click  of  the  telegraph  instrument. 

The  only  place  that  promised  anything  in  the  way  of 
supper  was  a  grocery  store  a  short  distance  down  the 
track.  Here  a  stew  from  canned  oysters  was  secured, 
and  an  orange  answered  for  dessert.  The  train  was 
late.  The  destination  was  not  reached  until  the  audi- 
ence was  already  waiting  and  a  dash  was  made  from 
the  station  to  the  lecture  platform.     But  upon  the 


HISTORY  OF  "ACRES   OF  DIAMONDS"      321 

return  trip,  at  the  wait  at  this  Httle  junction,  three 
men  told  Doctor  Conwell  of  how  they  had  been  helped 
by  this  lecture  in  years  gone  by.  One  had  heard  of  the 
lecture  from  his  school  teacher.  He  had  become  so 
interested  that  when  it  was  to  be  given  again,  he  and 
two  other  of  the  school  boys  had  earned  money  to  hire 
a  team  to  go  hear  it.  On  their  way  home  they  decided 
they  would  make  something  of  their  lives.  He  had 
worked  his  way  through  college  and  was  now  a  success- 
ful lawyer.  Such  stories  made  the  discomforts  of  the 
junction  of  small  moment. 

Once,  when  traveling  in  the  far  Northwest  when  the 
temperature  was  ten  below  zero,  the  hotel  at  which 
Doctor  Conwell  stayed  could  provide  no  heat  in  his 
bedroom,  and  he  was  compelled  to  go  to  bed  to  keep 
warm.  Even  this  procedure  scarcely  relieved  the  situa- 
tion. He  was  past  seventy  then,  and  a  great  sufferer 
from  rheumatism.  But  there  was  a  boy  in  a  certain 
college  counting  on  the  fee  from  this  lecture  for  part 
of  his  year's  expenses.  There  was  also  an  audience  to 
keep  faith  with.  And  so  he  spread  his  overcoat  on  the 
bed  and  reflected  that  under  some  conditions  a  certain 
kind  of  future  punishment  had  its  good  points. 

Doctor  Conwell  has  often  been  interrupted  by  the  cry 
of  ''Fire."  Twice  his  audience  has  been  compelled  to 
leave.  In  each  case  he  kept  on  speaking  and  pre- 
vented a  panic.  When  all  were  out,  he  made  his 
escape. 

Once  in  Colorado  when  making  an  address  at  an 
outdoor  meeting  the  platform  fell.  A  woman  was 
severely  hurt  and  was  taken  to  the  hospital.  Doctor 
Conwell  went  to  see  her;  inquired  into  her  condition; 
talked  with  her;  and  heard  something  of  her  life  and 
of  her  ambition  to  study.  He  put  her  name  on  his  list 
to  help  from  the  proceeds  of  his  lectures  and  she  became 

21 


322     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

eventually  the  president  of  a  woman's  college  in  one 
of  the  Western  states. 

At  one  time  in  the  State  of  Washington,  while  wait- 
ing at  midnight  on  a  dark  station  platform  for  a  train, 
a  man  came  up,  said  he  had  been  present  at  the  lecture 
that  evening,  and  that  he  had  heard  it  once  before. 
It  had  made  such  an  impression  on  him  at  that  time, 
he  said,  that  he  had  remembered  it  word  for  word. 
And  then  and  there  he  began  and — until  stopped  by 
the  arrival  of  the  train — recited  ^^ Acres  of  Diamonds" 
with  the  gestures,  the  inflection,  and  the  very  tone  of 
voice  of  Doctor  Conwell  himself. 

^'It  was  uncanny,"  said  Doctor  Conwell,  in  speaking 
of  the  incident.  "  I  seemed  to  be  looking  at  my  double. 
In  the  silence  of  that  midnight  hour,  with  that  man 
striding  up  and  down  that  dark  platform,  speaking  in 
my  voice,  using  my  words  and  gestures,  it  seemed 
almost  as  if  I  had  gone  on  to  the  other  world  and  were 
looking  back  at  some  impersonation  of  myself  that 
still  lived.  If  I  ever  need  an  understudy, "  he  concluded 
with  his  hearty  laugh,  ^'I'll  know  where  to  find  an 
excellent  one.  But  the  experience,  at  the  time,  gave 
me  a  strange  sensation." 

Upon  one  occasion  the  lecture  bureau  made  a  mis- 
take and  sent  him  to  Northfield,  Massachusetts, 
instead  of  to  Northfield,  Vermont.  When  he  reached 
the  Massachusetts  town,  he  found  that  a  man  who  was 
to  have  lectured  there  that  night  had  not  arrived.  So 
Doctor  Conwell  took  his  place,  and  spoke  to  the 
assembled  audience,  though  neither  lecture  nor  speaker 
was  what  they  expected. 

At  one  lecture  the  man  who  was  to  introduce  him 
after  a  long  preamble  in  which  he  stated  how  well  he 
knew  the  speaker  of  the  evening  and  how  much  good 
his  life  and  work  had  done,  presented  Doctor  Conwell 


HISTORY  OF   "ACRES  OF  DIAMONDS"      323 

to  the  audience  as  Doctor  McConnell  of  Brooklyn. 
This  is  somewhat  akin  to  the  presentation  once  of 
Doctor  David  Starr  Jordan  as  "Doctor  David  Jordan 
Starr, "  with  a  poetic  reference  to  the  evening  sky. 

Not  only  are  many  of  these  lecture  trips  wearisome 
and  full  of  hardship  and  exposure ;  but  they  are  strenu- 
ous. On  a  recent  trip  to  Pittsburgh,  Doctor  Conwell 
lectured  twice  on  the  way  out;  was  accompanied  by 
a  magazine  WTiter  to  whom  he  gave  data  on  the  train 
both  going  and  coming;  spoke  twice  in  Pittsburgh  on 
the  night  he  arrived,  because  the  audience  overflowed 
the  hall  where  he  was  to  make  his  address  and  he  had 
to  speak  to  the  second  gathering;  left  the  next  morning 
at  five  o'clock,  though  he  had  not  retired  until  after 
midnight;  came  through  to  Philadelphia  without 
stopping;  rushed  from  Broad  Street  Station  to  the 
Market  Street  Ferry,  barely  making  connections  for 
a  New  Jersey  town  where  he  was  to  speak  that  night; 
reached  there  at  six  o'clock  and  lectured  for  more  than 
two  hours  that  evening. 

At  another  time  Doctor  Conwell  lectured  at  Newark, 
New  Jersey,  until  after  twelve  o'clock;  took  the  eight 
o'clock  train  in  the  morning  for  Philadelphia,  where  he 
made  the  address  at  a  meeting  for  sending  a  relief  ship 
to  Belgium;  hurried  from  this  gathering  to  a  train  for 
New  York,  where  he  met  by  arrangement  a  number  of 
reporters  and  talked  until  six ;  then  gave  a  lecture,  and 
afterward  read  the  proofs  of  a  long  article  that  was  to 
appear  the  next  day. 

Such  days  as  these  on  Doctor  Conwell's  lecture  trips 
are  numerous.  Many  people  are  helped  by  the  lecture 
•itself;  and  many  others  by  the  money  earned.  But 
these  results  are  not  accomplished  without  hard  work, 
wearisome  traveling,  and  often  exposure  and  hardship. 


CHAPTER  XXXIII 

Ten  Million  Hearers 

Unique  Lecturing  Places.  Lecture  Topics.  Doctor 
Conwell  Discusses  Audiences,  Tells  How  to  Keep  the 
Voice  in  Good  Condition.  Mentions  the  Best  Ways 
to  Study  for  Public  Speaking  and  Speaks  of  His 
Early  Efforts.  What  Others  Say  of  His  Lectures. 
His  Chautauqua  Work  and  what  He  Thinks  of  the 
Chautauqua  Movement. 

IT  has  been  roughly  estimated  that  Doctor  Conwell, 
in  the  course  of  his  public  utterances,  has  spoken 
to  ten  million  people.  But  extraordinary  as  is  this 
feature  of  his  lecture  career,  the  places  in  which 
he  has  spoken  add  an  element  no  less  unique. 

He  has  spoken  at  the  Taj  Mahal  in  India  to  English 
soldiers.  It  was  a  strange  setting  for  a  lecture.  The 
English  soldiers  were  camped  on  the  banks  of  the 
Jumna  River.  A  platform  was  made  for  him  on  their 
camping  ground  and  under  a  blazing  Indian  sun,  to 
the  lazy  clashing  of  palm  leaves  and  with  this  glorious 
temple  like  a  jewel  gleaming  nearby,  he  gave  "Acres 
of  Diamonds.'^ 

Doctor  Conwell  has  spoken  in  the  enclosure  at 
Jerusalem  where  Solomon's  Temple  once  stood.  He 
has  lectured  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane.  He  has 
addressed  a  large  gathering  of  American  travelers  in 
Jericho.  He  has  spoken  to  the  English  colony  at  Hong 
Kong,  China;  and  he  has  given  "Acres  of  Diamonds'' 
a  number  of  times  on  shipboard. 

By  special  request  he  gave  "Men  of  the  Mountains" 

(324) 


TEN  MILLION  HEARERS  325 

before  the  King  and  Queen  of  Norway  and  a  select 
audience  gathered  by  invitation  at  the  palace  in 
Stockholm. 

Doctor  Conwell  has  lectured  in  Shakespeare  Theater 
at  Stratf ord-on-Avon ;  to  Indians  at  one  of  the  Indian 
schools  in  the  West;  to  negroes  at  institutes  in  the 
South;  and  one  of  the  oddest  places  in  which  he  ever 
lectured  was  at  a  deaf  and  dumb  institute  where  the 
lecture  as  he  gave  it  was  repeated  by  the  teacher  in 
the  sign  language  to  the  audience. 

These  lectures  have  not  all  been  ^^  Acres  of  Dia- 
monds,"— this  title  much  to  Doctor  Conwell's  amuse- 
ment being  sometimes  misprinted  to  read  ^^Ace  of 
Diamonds."  Remarkable  as  has  been  the  record  of 
this  lecture,  it  does  not  sum  up  Doctor  Conwell's 
success  on  the  lecture  platform.  This  is  his  best  known 
and  most  popular  lecture;  but  he  has  been  lecturing 
for  more  than  fifty  years.  His  subjects  have  covered 
a  wide  field  of  thought. 

Among  his  topics  have  been,  ^^The  Philosophy  of 
History;"  '^Men  of  the  Mountains;"  ''The  Old  and 
the  New  England;"  ''My  Fallen  Comrades;"  "The 
Dust  of  Our  Battlefields;"  "Was  it  a  Ghost  Story?" 
"The  Unfortunate  Chinese;"  "Three  Scenes  in  Baby- 
lon;" "Three  Scenes  From  the  Mount  of  Olives;" 
"The  Curriculum  of  the  Schools  of  the  Prophets  in 
Ancient  Israel;"  "Americans  in  Europe;"  "General 
Grant's  Empire;"  "Princess  Elizabeth;"  "Guides;" 
"Success  in  Life;"  "The  Undiscovered;'^  "The  Silver 
Crown,  or  Born  a  King;"  "Heroism  of  a  Private  Life;" 
"The  Jolly  Earthquake;"  "Heroes  and  Heroines;" 
"Garibaldi,  or  the  Power  of  Blind  Faith;"  "The 
Angels'  Lily;"  "The  Life  of  Columbus;"  "Five 
Million  Dollars  for  the  Face  of  the  Moon;"  "Henry 
Ward    Beecher;"     "That    Horrid    Turk;''     "Cuba's 


326     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Appeal  to  the  United  States;"  ''Anita,  the  Feminine 
Torch;"  and  "Personal  Glimpses  of  Celebrated  Men 
and  Women." 

His  lecturing  tours  are  now  confined  to  the  United 
States;  but  in  earlier  years  he  spoke  in  England, 
Ireland,  France,  Germany,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Turkey, 
Egypt,  the  Holy  Land,  India,  China  and  Japan.  He 
was  offered  $39,000  for  a  six  months^  engagement  in 
Australia,  and,  at  another  time,  $50,000  for  two  hundred 
lectures  in  Australia  and  England. 

Doctor  Conwell  began  lecturing  early.  In  fact,  as 
a  small  child  he  was,  as  it  was  phrased  at  home,  always 
"speaking  a  piece,"  or,  as  Doctor  Conwell  himself 
often  described  it,  "discoursing  to  the  cats  and  dogs 
and  other  objects,  animate  or  inanimate,  about  the 
farm."     Of  these  early  efforts,  he  says: 

"My  very  earliest  efforts  in  public  speaking  were  to 
the  roosters  in  the  barnyard  and  the  cat  upon  the 
hearth.  I  was  often  humiliated  when  a  boy  at  work 
in  the  cornfield,  to  find  myself  suddenly  surrounded 
by  a  delegation  of  neighbors,  who  a  mile  away  had 
heard  me  calling  and  w^ho  were  disgusted,  often  to 
profanity,  when  they  found  out  that  I  was  simply 
'practicing  my  piece.' 

"I  cannot  tell  why  I  turned  to  declamation  in  the 
way  I  did.  But  I  recall  the  fact  that  I  was  con- 
tinually addressing  the  cows,  when  bringing  them  home 
from  the  pasture,  in  terms  of  Caesar,  Shakespeare  and 
William  Cullen  Bryant.  My  sister  was  extremely 
annoyed  at  my  persistence  in  'speaking  my  piece'  and 
often  slanamed  the  door  when  she  heard  me  delivering 
my  imaginary  orations  in  my  room.  I  talked  to  the 
frogs  in  the  pond ;  to  the  old  horse  at  the  pasture  bars, 
and  found  a  special  delight  when  the  teacher  in  the 
public  school  allowed  me  to  speak  at  the  close  of  the 


TEN   MILLION   HEARERS  327 

From  these  early  efforts  Doctor  Conwell  graduated 
into  the  debating  societies  around  home.  Then  he 
went  to  Wilbraham  and,  as  we  have  seen,  took  an 
important  part  in  the  debates  of  the  Old  Club  there. 
All  this  was  excellent  practice  for  the  public  speaking 
that  was  to  become  such  an  important  part  of  his 
life  work.  It  was  an  illustration  of  that  inner  life 
force  groping  for  that  which  was  to  be.  What  might 
be  called  Doctor  Conwell's  first  lecture,  however,  was 
given  in  1859  when  he  began  to  sell  the  biography  of 
John  Brown.     Of  this  work  he  says  in  an  interview: 

''My  introduction  to  the  lecture  field  was  given  when 
I  was  sixteen.  When  John  Brown  was  hung  in  Virginia, 
James  Redpath  wrote  a  biography  of  Mr.  Brown  and 
persuaded  my  father  to  send  me  out  to  sell  it  by  sub- 
scription. My  first  public  lecture  was  given  on  the 
subject  of  his  life.  I  spoke  morning,  afternoon  and 
evening  from  school-house  to  school-house  in  that  part 
of  the  state.  It  must  have  been  a  ridiculous  exhibition 
of  'Boy  Oratory,'  but  it  did  sell  the  book.  Probably 
the  deep  feeling  in  the  New  England  states  over  the 
'martyrdom'  of  John  Brown  had  most  to  do  with  the 
kind  reception  of  the  'Boy  Orator.'  "  This  was 
followed  by  his  speeches  for  enlistment.  In  referring 
to  this  work  Doctor  Conwell  says: 

"When  the  war  began  I  was  continuously  called 
upon  to  speak  at  war  meetings  held  for  the  purpose 
of  inducing  men  to  enlist  in  the  army.  I  recall  one 
address,  which  I  made  at  Westfield,  Massachusetts, 
in  1860,  where  so  many  bouquets  were  sent  up  to  me 
or  thrown  upon  the  platform,  that  the  porter  at  the 
hotel  brought  them  to  my  room  in  two  clothes  baskets. 
It  is  a  wonder  to  me,  indeed,  that  such  events  did  not 
completely  turn  my  head  and  destroy  all  hope  of  future 
successes. 


328     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

''But  the  fear  of  audiences,  and  the  doubt  as  to  my 
ability  to  speak  again,  successfully  kept  me  ever  in 
an  humble  condition  of  mind  and  robbed  me  of  the 
great  joy  which  many  must  feel,  who  are  completely 
satisfied  with  their  attainments.  Governor  Andrews 
of  the  state  very  soon  heard  of  the  'Boy  Orator'  and 
invited  me  in  a  personal  letter  to  attend  several  meet- 
ings in  the  city  of  Boston." 

In  1860,  when  but  seventeen  years  of  age.  Young 
Con  well  gave  a  lecture  on  the  "Philosophy  of  History," 
in  which  he  tried  to  show  that  the  Civil  War  was 
inevitable  because  of  the  events  of  the  past  fifty  years. 
But  his  first  attempt  at  real  platform  lecturing  was 
made  in  Westfield,  Massachusetts,  in  1861,  in  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  when  he  was  encouraged 
and  introduced  by  the  great  temperance  advocate, 
John  B.  Gough. 

The  war,  of  course,  interrupted  his  work  on  the 
lecture  platform,  but  after  his  return  to  civilian  life 
he  again  took  up  public  speaking.  In  Minnesota,  and 
later  upon  his  return  to  Boston,  the  work  continuously 
grew.  In  describing  those  early  days  on  the  lecture 
platform,  Doctor  Conwell  says: 

"I  lectured  at  first  in  churches  and  summer  hotels, 
and  often  twice  a  day,  but  for  a  very  small  fee.  Once 
I  was  paid  with  a  smoked  ham,  and  at  another  time 
with  a  preacher's  note  for  four  dollars  and  fifty  cents, 
which  still  remains  unpaid.  The  greatest  income 
from  any  one  lecture  was  an  independent  lecture  in 
Baltimore,  when  the  receipts  were  $1,751  above  all 
expenses.  The  largest  straight  fee  from  a  committee 
was  five  hundred  dollars  at  the  Mormon  Tabernacle, 
Salt  Lake  City.  One  year  a  wealthy  man  in 
Burlington,  Vermont,  sent  me  to  sixty-three  different 
places,  and  paid  the  bill  himself.    The  largest  audience 


TEN  MILLION  HEARERS  329 

I  ever  had  was  in  Madison  Square  Garden,  New 
York,  when  upwards  of  fifteen  thousand  were  present, 
and  the  next  largest  was  in  Salt  Lake  City,  where 
there  were  twelve  thousand  present." 

Doctor  Conwell's  lectures,  like  his  sermons,  are  full  of 
practical  help  and  good  sense.  They  are  profusely 
illustrated  with  anecdotes  and  stories  that  fasten  the 
thought  of  his  subject.  He  uses  no  notes  and  gives 
his  lectures  little  thought  during  the  day.  Indeed, 
he  often  does  not  know  the  subject  until  he  hears  the 
chairman  announce  it. 

If  the  lecture  is  new  or  one  that  he  has  not  given  for 
many  years,  he  occasionally  has  a  few  notes  or  a  brief 
outline  before  him.  But  usually  he  is  so  full  of  the 
subject,  and  pertinent  ideas  and  illustrations  so  crowd 
his  mind,  that  he  is  troubled  with  the  wealth,  rather 
than  the  dearth,  of  material.  Doctor  Conwell  rarely 
gives  a  lecture  twice  alike.  The  main  thought,  of 
course,  is  the  same.  But  new  experiences  suggest 
new  illustrations;  and  so,  no  matter  how  many  times 
one  hears  it,  he  always  hears  something  new.  ''That's 
the  third  time  I've  heard  'Acres  of  Diamonds,'  "  said  one 
delighted  auditor,  "and  every  time  it  grows  better." 

In  fact,  Doctor  Conwell  has  often  given  "Acres  of 
Diamonds"  in  a  course  of  three  lectures,  because  he 
has  had  so  many  illustrations  to  fit  the  topic  that  he 
could  lecture  three  or  four  times  on  the  subject  with- 
out repetition.  Speaking  of  a  lecture  he  gave  in 
England,  a  London  newspaper  says: 

"The  man  is  weirdly  like  his  native  hills.  You 
can  hear  the  cascades  and  the  trickling  streams  in  his 
tone  of  voice.  He  has  a  strange,  unconscious  power 
of  so  modulating  his  voice  as  to  suggest  the  roar  of  the 
tempest  in  rocky  declivities,  or  the  soft  echo  of  music 
in  distant  valleys.      The  breezy  freshness  and  natural 


330     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

suggestiveness  of  varied  nature  in  its  wild  state  was 
completely  fascinating.  He  excelled  in  description, 
and  the  auditor  could  almost  hear  Niagara  roll  as  he 
described  it,  and  listened  to  catch  the  sound  of  sighing 
pines  in  his  voice  as  he  told  of  the  Carolinas." 

''The  lecture  was  wonderful  in  clearness,  powerful 
and  eloquent  in  delivery,"  said  another  London  paper. 
''The  speaker  made  the  past  a  living  present,  and  led 
the  audience,  unconscious  of  time,  with  him  in  his 
walks  and  talks  with  famous  men.  When  engrossed 
in  his  lecture,  his  facial  expression  is  a  study.  His 
countenance  conveys  more  quickly  than  his  words  the 
thought  he  is  elucidating;  and  when  he  refers  to  his 
Maker,  his  face  takes  on  an  expression  indescribable 
for  its  purity.  He  seems  to  hold  the  people,  as  children 
stare  at  brilliant  and  startling  pictures." 

"It  is  useless  to  try  to  report  Doctor  Con  well's 
lectures,"  is  the  verdict  of  a  Massachusetts  paper. 
"They  are  unique.  Unlike  anything  or  any  one  else. 
Filled  with  good  sense;  brilliant  with  new  suggestions; 
and  inspiring  always  to  noble  life  and  deeds.  They 
always  please  with  their  wit.  The  reader  of  his 
addresses  does  not  know  the  full  power  of  the  man." 

"His  stories  are  always  singularly  adapted  to  the 
lecturer's  purpose.  Each  story  is  mirth-provoking. 
The  audience  chuckled,  shook,  swayed  and  roared  with 
convulsions  of  laughter,"  reported  a  London  daily 
paper.  "He  has  been  in  the  lecture  field  but  few 
years,  yet  he  has  already  made  a  place  beside  such  men 
as  Phillips,  Beecher  and  Chapin." 

"The  only  lecturer  in  America,"  says  a  Philadelphia 
newspaper,  "who  can  fill  a  hall  in  this  city  with  three 
thousand  people  at  a  dollar  a  ticket." 

"He  is  the  last  of  the  galaxy  of  such  men  as 
Gough,  Beecher,  Chapin,"  comments  a  national  weekly. 


TEN  MILLION  HEARERS  331 

''There  are  about  ten  real  American  lecturers  on  the/ 
American  platform  today,  and  Doctor  Con  well  is  one/ 
of  the  ten  and  probably  the  most  eminent." 

Those  who  have  heard  him  speak,  know  how  aptly 
these  press  comments  describe  him.  But  those  who 
have  never  heard  him  may  gather  some  idea  of  the 
impression  he  makes  by  the  following  letter  written 
by  a  gentleman  who  attended  the  banquet  given  to 
President  McKinley,  at  the  G.  A.  R.  Encampment  in 
Philadelphia,  in  1899: 

''At  the  table  with  the  President  was  Russell  H. 
Conwell,  and  no  one  near  me  could  tell  me  who  he  was. 
We  mistook  him  for  the  new  Secretary  of  War,  until 
Secretary  Root  made  his  speech.  There  was  a  highly 
intelligent  and  remarkably  representative  audience 
of  the  nation  gathered  at  this  magnificent  banquet  and 
the  hall  was  decorated  regardless  of  cost. 

"The  addresses  were  especially  good,  and  made  by 
men  specially  before  the  nation.  Yet  all  the  evening, 
till  after  midnight,  there  were  continuous  interruptions 
and  much  noise  of  voices  and  dishes  and  waiters. 
Men  at  distant  tables  laughed  aloud  often.  It  was 
difficult  to  hear  at  best,  as  the  acoustics  were  so  bad. 
The  speakers  took  it  as  a  matter  of  course  at  such  a 
'continuous  performance.'  Some  of  the  Representa- 
tives must  have  thought  they  were  at  home  in  the 
House  at  Washington.  Those  present  listened  or  not, 
as  they  chose.  The  great  hall  was  quiet  only  when 
the  President  gave  his  address,  and  when  Doctor 
Conwell  spoke  long  after  midnight. 

"When,  about  the  last  thing,  Doctor  Conwell  was 
introduced  by  the  chairman,  no  one  heard  his  name 
because  of  the  noise  at  the  tables.  Two  men  asked  me 
who  he  was.  But  not  two  minutes  after  he  began,  the 
place  was  still  and  men  craned  their  necks  to  catch  his 


332     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

words.  I  never  saw  anything  so  magical.  I  know 
you  would  have  enjoyed  it.  Its  effect  was  a  great 
surprise — the  revelers  all  worn;  the  people  ready  to 
go  home;  the  waiters  impatient;  and  the  speech 
wholly  extemporaneous.  It  was  a  triumph  that  did 
honor  to  American  oratory  at  its  best.  The  applause 
was  decisive  and  deafening.  I  never  heard  of  anything 
better  done  under  such  circumstances. 

'^None  of  the  morning  papers  that  we  could  get 
on  the  train  mentioned  either  Doctor  Conwell  or  his 
great  speech.  Perhaps  Conwell  asked  the  reporters  to 
suppress  it.  I  don't  know  as  to  that.  But  it  was  the 
first  thing  we  looked  for.  Not  a  word.  There  is  no 
clue  to  account  for  that.  Yet  that  is  the  peculiarity  of 
this  singular  life — one  of  the  most  public — one  of  the 
most  successful — yet  one  of  the  least  discussed  or 
written  about.  He  was  to  us  visitors  the  great  feature 
of  that  banquet  as  a  speaker,  and  yet  he  was  wholly 
ignored  by  the  press  of  his  own  city. 

^'The  United  States  Senator  Penrose  seemed  only 
to  know  in  a  general  way  that  Doctor  Conwell  was  a 
great  benefactor  and  a  powerful  citizen  and  preacher. 
Conwell  is  a  study.  I  cogitated  on  him  all  day.  I  was 
told  that  he  marched  throughout  the  great  parade  in 
the  rear  rank  of  his  G.  A.  R.  Post.  It  is  the  strangest 
case  of  private  life  that  I  have  ever  heard  mentioned. 
The  Quakers  will  wake  up  resurrection  day  and  find 
out  that  Doctor  Conwell  lived  in  Philadelphia.  It  is 
startling  to  think  how  measureless  the  influence  of 
such  a  man  is,  in  its  effect  on  the  world.  Through 
forty  years  educating  men;  healing  the  sick;  caring 
for  children;  then  preaching  to  a  great  church;  then 
lecturing  in  the  great  cities  nearly  every  night;  then 
writing  biographies;  and  also  an  accessible  counselor 
to  such  masses  of  young  people !'' 


TEN  MILLION   HEARERS  333 

So  magnetic  a  speaker  is  naturally  sensitive  in 
regard  to  his  audiences.  ''It  makes  a  great  difference 
to  me,"  Doctor  Con  well  said  once,  ''whether  an 
audience  is  in  sympathy  with  me  or  not.  If  I  find 
an  audience  is  cold,  I  try  to  imagine  the  audience  I 
would  like  to  have.  But  it  is  more  difficult  to  lecture 
under  such  conditions.     I  am  carrying  a  double  load. 

"The  only  time  I  ever  feel  tired  is  after  a  lecture 
when  the  audience  is  unresponsive.  A  good  audience 
never  tires  me;  indeed,  if  I  go  on  the  platform  feeling 
tired,  a  good  audience  will  make  me  forget  it.  A  good 
audience  sometimes  causes  me  to  forget  my  rheuma- 
tism, and  that,  too,  when  I  have  a  savage  attack,  and 
walk  in  on  crutches.  When  I  face  a  large  audience 
which  seems  to  follow  me  in  sympathy,  I  forget  my 
rheumatism,  and  never  am  tired. 

"There  is  a  belt  of  civilization  running  across  the 
country  from  a  point  about  at  Philadelphia  on  the 
south  and  extending  north  to  the  international  bound- 
ary. In  that  belt,  I  find  my  most  responsive  audiences. 
In  that  belt  lies  the  largest  number  of  modern  homes 
and  the  largest  number  of  educated  persons.  They 
seem  to  go  along  with  me;  they  note  every  point, 
they  are  enthusiastic  at  times;  and  the  hour  and 
three-quarters  of  my  lecture  slip  away  almost  without 
effort  on  my  part. 

"Now  in  the  South,  the  people  are  more  conserva- 
tive. They  are  not  so  easily  moved.  But  when  they 
are  awakened  by  a  fact  or  illustration,  they  never 
forget  it.  They  are  slow  to  take  hold,  but  when  they 
do,  they  treasure  it  more  than  is  done  by  those  in  the 
zone  I  have  described." 

Doctor  Conwell  was  asked  once  if  the  great  amount 
of  public  speaking  he  had  done  had  brought  on  any  of 
the  various  ailments  to  which  public   speakers  fall 


334     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

victims.  ''No,"  he  answered,  ''because  I  always 
speak  in  a  natural  voice.  You  may  speak  as  loud  as 
you  please,  if  you  use  your  natural  voice.  The  moment 
you  try  elocution,  your  voice  breaks.  My  voice  is 
just  as  good  today  as  ever  it  was,  and  this  is  due  to  my 
rule  to  never  try  elocutionary  effects. 

"When  I  address  very  large  audiences  I  find  it  nec- 
essary to  speak  very  slowly.  I  followed  this  plan 
when  I  addressed  the  audience  in  the  Mormon  Taber- 
nacle in  1872,  and  I  was  heard  as  clearly  as  I  am  in 
this  room.  That  is  the  only  secret  in  public  speaking. 
If  one  speaks  naturally,  he  can  be  heard  and  he  saves 
his  voice. 

"Oratory,''  Doctor  Conwell  went  on,  "is  the  science 
of  effective  speech.  There  are  many  forms  of  oratory 
and  many  ways  of  persuading  people,  but  anyone  of 
them  which  proves  effective  for  its  purpose  may  be 
set  down  as  an  example  of  true  oratory.  After  attend- 
ing some  of  the  most  famous  schools  of  elocution  in 
America,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that,  as  a  general 
rule,  it  is  best  to  try  under  all  circumstances  'to  be 
natural.' 

"It  seems  like  a  dream  and  very  unreal  that  I  have 
spoken  to  so  many  thousands  of  people  in  the  half 
century  and  more  in  which  I  have  been  addressing  the 
public.  It  was  not  unusual  for  me  to  address  an 
audience  one  hundred  nights  in  succession  in  halls  of 
various  sizes  and  often  with  poor  ventilation,  without 
detecting  the  slightest  huskiness  in  my  voice  or  losing 
an  engagement  on  account  of  a  cold. 

"Elocution,  like  poetry,  is  worth  the  time  devoted 
to  its  study,  even  for  an  extended  period;  but  in  ora- 
tory, it  must  be  only  a  second  nature  and  be  wholly 
forgotten  when  in  the  act  of  public  speaking.  When 
I  listened  to  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Edward  Everett, 


TEN  MILLION  HEARERS  335 

or  Mrs.  Livermore,  I  was  convinced  that  the  study  of 
elocution  was  valuable  as  a  training,  but  a  hindrance 
in  conscious  practice. 

''The  ideal  school  of  oratory  in  the  old  days  was 
established  in  the  country  schoolhouse  in  the  winter 
evenings,  when  some  of  the  citizens  organized  an 
evening  lyceum  for  the  purpose  of  holding  regular 
debates.  I  was  always  timid  and  made  the  most  fool- 
ish blunders,  and  yet  some  tyrannical  spirit  within  me 
ever  pushed  me  forward  to  say  something  upon  the 
question  whenever  an  opportunity  was  given  me  to  do 
so.  It  was  a  strange,  subconscious  pressure  which 
forced  me  to  overcome  a  very  decided  feeling  of  diffi- 
dence in  public,  and  shame  for  my  failures. 

''If  a  had  consulted  my  own  desires  or  preferences, 
I  would  never  have  engaged  in  public  speech,  and 
even  now  I  find  it  a  hardship  to  address  a  new  audience. 
My  mother  and  father  both  felt  that  I  was  'called 
to  the  ministry'  in  answer  to  their  continual  prayer, 
and  I  entered  into  the  idea  that  some  miraculous 
genius  was  pushing  me  to  do  the  things  I  did  not  wish 
to  do.  But  that  debating  society  was  the  best  possible 
training  for  public  speaking  that  a  boy  could  secure." 

Doctor  Conwell  has  been  one  of  the  Chautauqua 
lecturers  from  the  inception  of  the  Chautauqua  move- 
ment, which  grew  out  of  the  Methodist  camp-meetings ; 
and,  as  he  had  been  a  speaker  at  these  camp-meetings, 
it  was  only  natural  that  he  was  called  upon  to  help  in 
the  development  of  this  new  work.  He  was  associated 
with  Bishop  Vincent  in  the  movement  in  the  early 
days,  and  few  seasons  have  gone  by  that  he  has  not 
spoken  somewhere  at  a  Chautauqua  gathering.  For 
many  years  now  he  had  been  one  of  the  regular  speakers. 
He  starts  in  June,  and  every  day  and  sometimes  twice 
a  day  he  addresses  Chautauqua  audiences  until  the 
season  closes  late  in  August. 


336     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

''I  consider  the  Chautauqua  one  of  the  greatest 
movements  a  civiHzed  country  has  ever  taken  up," 
said  Doctor  Conwell  once,  in  speaking  of  what  the 
Chautauqua  is  doing.  ''The  program  is  entertaining 
enough  to  draw  people's  attention  and  then  educational 
enough  to  do  much  good.  It  is  a  great  movement  for 
the  education  of  the  people.  It  draws  large  audiences 
of  country  people  right  from  the  farms. 

"The  practice  of  holding  the  meetings  in  tents  works 
for  good  in  two  ways.  The  tents  are  easily  handled, 
and  so  expenses  are  kept  down,  and  the  admission  fee 
is  small.  And  being  held  in  tents,  at  an  almost  nominal 
price,  the  country  people  look  upon  it  as  somewhat  in 
the  nature  of  a  picnic,  and  everybody  attends  in  simple 
dress  and  unconventional  fashion.  If  it  were  a  fashion- 
able affair,  many  who  now  attend  and  are  benefited 
would  stay  away." 

As  can  be  seen,  lecturing  has  been  a  large  and  impor- 
tant part  of  Doctor  Conwell's  life-work.  Many  believe 
the  service  he  has  rendered  his  fellowmen  through  his 
lectures  is  greater  than  he  has  given  through  the 
church,  the  University  and  the  hospitals.  But,  be 
this  as  it  may,  his  record  as  a  lecturer  stands  alone. 

When  one  considers  the  more  than  half  century  in 
which  Doctor  Conwell  has  been  lecturing;  the  millions 
who  have  heard  him  speak;  the  strange  and  faraway 
places  in  which  he  has  spoken;  the  fact  that  he  never 
gives  a  single  lecture  without  the  earnest  desire  to  do 
somebody  good;  and  the  benefits  to  individual  and 
communities  that  have  resulted  thereby ;  his  is,  indeed, 
a  record  unique  in  the  history  of  the  lecture  platform. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV 

Fifty  Years  on  the  American  Platform 

Doctor  Conwell  Discusses  Lecturing  as  a  Career 
and  Gives  Reminiscences  from  His  Many  Years^ 
Experience. 

IN  speaking  of  his  work  as  a  lecturer,  Doctor  Con- 
well  says:  ^^ There  comes  to  me  a  serious  sense  of 
loss  and  defeat  as  I  think  what  might  have  been 

accomplished  if  I  had  more  wisely  chosen  my  occu- 
pation in  my  early  years.  Each  person  is  bom  into  this 
world  with  some  chief  characteristics  which  should  be 
combined  and  strengthened  in  order  that  he  may  do  his 
best  work.  There  is  always  some  one  thing  which  a 
man  or  woman  can  do  better  than  he  can  do  anything 
else,  and  probably  better  than  it  can  be  done  by  any 
other  person. 

''Lecturing  should  have  been  my  exclusive  profession, 
for  in  that  I  have  ever  found  my  greatest  joy,  and  in 
that  I  must  have  accomplished  more  than  in  any  other 
enterprise  of  hfe.  But,  alas!  how  far  short  it  has  fallen 
from  the  idea  which  I  set  for  it  in  my  boyhood  years, 
and  how  far  below  the  standard  which  might  have 
been  fully  maintained  if  I  had  not  divided  my  attention 
from  it. 

''The  lecture  platform  is  a  great  opportunity  to  give 
instruction  and  inspiration,  and  to  me  it  has  been  the 
most  joyful  occupation  of  life.  No  man  can  exaggerate 
the  great  exultation  of  spirit  which  comes  to  a  public 
speaker  who  has  an  important  message  to  deliver  and 
who  is  before  a  sympathetic  audience;  who  loses  him- 

22  (337) 


338     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

self  in  his  topic  and  launches  out  fearlessly  into  the 
deep  of  declamation,  invective,  or  entreaty.  Like  an 
aeroplane,  he  flies  aloft  over  land  and  sea,  above  the 
clouds.  Often,  in  the  early  hours  of  a  public  address, 
I  would  tremble  and  actually  shiver  in  my  opening 
sentences;  sometimes  striving  to  recite  something 
which  I  had  particularly  learned — like  one  standing 
in  chilly  water  and  waiting  for  the  delayed  word  to 
plunge  in. 

^'But  where  on  this  earth  can  there  be  found  a  joy 
so  deep  as  that  absence  of  all  consciousness  of  one^s 
self — that  seeming  to  swim  out  into  the  spiritual  realm, 
where  nothing  draws  downward  and  every  breeze  is 
favoring  one?  Oh !  those  indescribable  heights  of  expe- 
rience which  sometimes  come  in  the  midst  of  a  patriotic 
or  religious  address,  when  the  speaker  is  almost  uncon- 
scious of  the  excited  audiences;  when  everything  is 
transfigured  with  a  strangely  divine  glory;  and  when 
the  full  current  of  the  magnetism  of  the  audience 
seemed  to  carry  the  speaker  over  the  loftiest  peaks  with 
safety!  Then  he  must  feel  as  the  prophets  felt  when 
they  '  lost  themselves  in  the  power  of  God. ' 

''  Public  speakers  do  not  often  do  their  best.  Neither 
are  they  sure  that  on  every  occasion  they  can  do  more 
than  to  lumber  through  their  speeches  and  close  with 
dull,  hard  argument,  which  may  convince  the  mind 
but  does  not  improve  the  soul.  But  the  so-called 
'afflatus^  of  the  ancient  orators  is  within  the  reach 
of  modern  speakers  on  certain  favorable  occasions  and 
there  seems  to  be  no  joy  equal  to  it.  Without  that 
inspiration,  public  speaking  becomes  a  drudgery,  both 
to  the  orator  and  to  the  audience.  In  my  limited 
experience,  which  I  do  not  regard  as  a  trustworthy 
model,  I  have  gotten  a  glimpse  of  what  the  great 
orators  must  have  felt,  when  those  like  Demosthenes 


FIFTY  YEARS  ON  THE  PLATFORM  339 

and  the  greater  Pitt  were  overcome  by  their  emotions 
in  the  midst  of  their  sublime  flights  of  oratory. 

''It  was  my  good  fortune  to  hear  Abraham  Lincoln 
deliver  his  speech  at  the  Cooper  Institute,  New  York, 
when  he  threw  aside  his  manuscript  and,  in  the  words 
of  the  reporter,  'let  himself  go.'  The  quick  transition 
from  the  monotonous  reader  of  manuscript — from  the 
lawyer  carefully  presenting  his  words — into  the  pictur- 
ings  of  the  inspired  orator,  whose  imagination  flung  out 
its  wings  wide  and  soared  far  over  the  usual  things  of 
earth,  was  seemingly  miraculous  to  the  listeners. 

"Mr.  Lincoln's  awkward  form,  long  arms,  rumpled 
hair,  and  thin  body  were  completely  hidden  behind  the 
imaginative  figures,  which  transfigured  the  speaker  in 
a  gleam  of  oratorical  glory,  and  which  his  great  native 
talents  brought  forth.  It  was  in  those  moments  of 
supreme  elevation  that  he  convinced  and  persuaded 
that  antagonistic  audience  to  believe  that  the  American 
flag  should  represent  freedom  in  its  best  form  for  all 
races  of  men.  The  newspapers  stated  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
went  to  his  room  that  night  exhausted  and  silent,  but 
filled  with  the  indescribable  satisfaction  of  having  been 
for  two  hours  in  that  region  'where  the  souls  of  the 
highest  dwell  and  where  the  minds  enjoying  the  keenest 
wisdom,  find  rest  in  heavenly  debate.' 

"Lecturing  and  preaching  have  ever  seemed  to  me  ^ 
to  be  such  sacred  things  that  I  have  been  especially 
grateful  to  God  that  I  have  not  been  obliged  to  earn 
my  living  thereby.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  it  is  dis- 
honorable or  a  matter  for  criticism,  when  men  are 
obliged  to  earn  their  living  by  public  speech.  But  it 
has  been  a  blessing  beyond  all  compare  to  feel  that  I 
can  go  up  on  the  platform  and  say  to  the  people  what 
I  felt  it  was  most  necessary  to  say,  and  to  say  it  in  my 
own  way,  free  from  all  connection  with  wages,  or 
money  reward. 


340     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

''When  committees  have  handed  me  the  fee  after  a 
lecture  in  which  I  felt  I  had  risen  to  the  occasion,  I  have 
hesitated  and  felt  the  chill  of  the  money,  as  though  it 
were  a  profane  thing  to  receive  at  that  time  any  pay 
in  money.  It  may  be  that  it  is  a  simple,  personal 
eccentricity,  but  the  highest  place  I  have  ever  reached 
in  life's  long  work  has  been  that  of  addressing  a  needy 
audience  with  all  my  soul;  having  no  purpose  or 
thought  but  the  good  which  could  be  done  at  the  time, 
if  I  kept  true  to  the  highest  and  best  of  my  subject; 
and  having  no  hope  of  financial  reward  for  my  labor. 
That  was  joy  indescribable. 

''But  I  learned,  early  in  my  experience,  that  many 
men  judge  of  the  importance  of  a  man's  address  by  the 
amount  he  is  paid  for  it;  and  I  found  that  if  I  would 
retain  my  influence  with  those  I  wished  to  benefit,  I 
must  continually  insist  upon  an  adequate  return  for 
the  labor  expended,  although  the  fees  did  not  go  into 
my  personal  account.  Henry  Ward  Beecher  told  me 
that  the  happiest  hour  he  ever  had  upon  the  lecture 
platform  was  when  he  was  speaking  to  raise  a  fund  for 
the  working  girls  of  St.  Louis,  who  had  been  injured 
at  their  trade,  and  that  he  had  refused  to  go  upon  the 
platform  unless  the  committee  in  charge  would  guar- 
antee to  raise,  that  night,  five  thousand  dollars  before 
the  meeting  adjourned.  He  said  that  the  notices  of 
his  address  showed  him  how  much  more  the  people 
understood  and  appreciated  what  he  said,  when  they 
found  out  that  they  must  pay  five  thousand  dollars 
for  an  address  of  an  hour  and  a  half. 

"Public  speakers  and  ministers  of  the  Gospel  often 
defeat  their  own  righteous  ambitions  by  cheapening 
themselves  under  such  circumstances  and  refusing  to 
receive  money,  showing  by  their  own  estimate  the  value 
of  their  work,  and  destroying  the  influence  of  their  own 


FIFTY  YEARS  ON  THE  PLATFORM  341 

teaching.  An  over-estimate  of  one's  value,  which  is 
perhaps  the  most  dangerous  thing,  is,  of  course,  a  very 
foohsh  condition  of  mind  and  leads  to  sure  defeat.  The 
most  of  the  sins  of  our  world  are  sins  of  the  extremists. 

'^I  often  went  before  audiences  in  the  first  twenty 
years  of  my  public  speaking  with  a  sense  of  my  awk- 
wardness and  an  over-consciousness  of  my  feet  and 
hands,  while  being  introduced;  and  in  a  misery  of 
self-condemnation,  thinking  how  absurd  it  was  for  me 
to  thrust  myself  into  a  place  so  far  beyond  my  talents 
and  reputation.  Often  I  could  see  by  the  smiles  and 
whisperings  of  the  audience  that  they  expected  nothing  / 
from  me  but  dullness  and  crudities  and  sometimes 
people  went  out  after  my  introduction  and  before  I 
had  fully  begun  my  address. 

"At  such  times  there  often  came  to  me  the  deter- 
mination to  fight,  and  my  whole  soul  was  aroused  to  its 
highest  efforts  by  the  sting  and  ridicule,  and  by  the 
evident  low  estimate  they  had  already  made  of  my 
efforts.  Then  every  muscle  and  nerve  and  all  the 
latent  energies  of  my  soul  were  aroused  until,  like  a 
flood,  they  swept  me  on  into  rushing  torrents  of  expres- 
sion so  much  above  my  usual  thinking,  that  when  I 
read  the  shorthand  reports,  it  was  a  very  difficult  thing 
to  convince  myself  that  they  were  my  own  words. 
Indeed,  I  have  often  delivered  addresses,  sermons  and 
lectures,  which,  when  read  to  me  from  the  stenog-  . 
rapher's  notes,  sounded  utterly  unlike  myself;  the  / 
forms  of  the  sentences,  the  figures  of  speech;  and  the 
accurate  statistics  seemed  altogether  new  to  me,  not 
being  able  to  recall  the  excited  speech. 

''Many  times  I  have  found  a  list  of  dates,  figures, 
names  and  events  in  my  addresses,  which  I  was  sure 
could  not  be  correct,  because  I  did  not  remember  everj^/ 
having  read  anything  about  those  things,  and  felt  that 


342     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

I  had  made  a  dreadful  blunder  in  making  such  wild 
statements.  But,  afterwards,  upon  careful  examina- 
tion, I  found  that  every  statement  was  fully  correct. 
Indeed,  the  most  correct  quotations  that  I  ever  use 
are  those  which  come  to  me  in  the  midst  of  the  excite- 
ment of  public  speaking.  Poems  and  speeches,  events 
of  history  and  recent  incidents  which  have  passed  from 
my  ordinary  memory,  leap  back  into  view  in  the  midst 
of  my  speech  and  I  state  them  without  hesitation ;  but 
I  could  not  possibly  recall  or  recite  them  in  the  calm 
hours  of  ordinary  life. 

*'Many  times  I  have  been  requested  by  the  reporters, 
after  an  address  is  finished,  to  give  them  the  words  of 
some  quotation,  or  the  names  of  some  individuals  or 
countries,  and  am  not  able  to  recall  the  fact  at  all  that 
I  referred  to  such  things  on  the  platform.  That  is  a 
somewhat  rare  experience.  But  it  is  mentioned  as 
among  the  greatest  joys  of  any  professional  work. 
One  must  have  knowledge,  skill  and  enthusiasm  in 
order  to  do  his  best,  and  that  is  probably  true  of  every 
profession. 

^'The  great  power  of  an  audience  over  the  speaker  is 
seldom  appreciated  by  the  listener,  and  it  seems  impos- 
sible to  make  an  audience  understand  how  dependent 
their  teacher  or  preacher  is  upon  their  approval  or 
applause.  I  have  often  addressed  an  audience  where 
there  was  absolute  quietness  and  no  demonstration  of 
delight,  and  have  felt  the  awful  strain  of  being  obliged  to 
mentally  or  mesmerically  lift  that  whole  audience  by 
an  exercise  of  psychological  strength;  and  when  I 
retired  from  the  platform  I  was  too  weak  to  walk  alone. 
It  was  a  fearful  weakening  effort ;  and  the  audience  did 
not  get  the  best  things,  nor  receive  the  best  impressions, 
because  of  the  impossibility  for  me  to  lift  them  into 
enthusiastic  attention. 


FIFTY  YEARS  ON  THE  PLATFORM  343 

*'Yet  such  audiences  are  very  often  composed  of  the 
most  attentive  and  retentive  people,  and  I  have  often 
afterward  heard  that  such  a  speech  was  of  greater  use 
than  many  others  which  I  had  enjoyed.  But  it  often 
happened  that  the  next  night  I  was  before  an  entirely 
different  audience  of  active  minds  and  enterprising 
people,  who  applauded  at  every  point  wherever  a  tell- 
ing sentence  was  emphatically  used.  The  whole  con- 
dition was  reversed  for  the  audience  then  was  lifting 
me,  and  I  was  carried  along  without  effort.  I  could 
think  clearly  and  speak  easily,  and  found  deep  satis- 
faction in  the  hour  I  spent  with  them. 

''  I  returned  to  the  hotel  from  such  an  audience  feeling 
refreshed  and  happy,  and  w^ent  to  bed  singing.  Yet, 
for  both  audiences  I  had  the  same  subject  on  which  I 
had  spoken  thousands  of  times,  and  had  tried  to  say  it 
in  the  same  way  and  as  far  as  possible  to  use  the  same 
words.  Reasonable  applause  is  a  necessary  condition 
for  bringing  out  the  best  that  is  in  a  public  speaker. 
Great  musicians  seem  to  be  more  sensitive  to  its  inspir- 
ing power  than  public  speakers. 

''The  sense  of  responsibility  is  often  a  heavy  burden 
to  a  public  teacher,  and  I  have  found  it  difficult  to 
carry,  at  tunes,  especially  where  I  had  been  over- 
advertised  and  over-estimated,  and  where  I  felt  sure 
that  I  could  not  do  all  the  wonderful  things  which  had 
been  proclaimed  I  would  do.  For  the  sole  purpose  in 
my  heart  was  to  do  the  people  good;  to  leave  them 
wiser  or  better  than  I  found  them ;  and  anything  which 
stood  in  the  way  of  my  accomplishing  that  practical 
end  was  disheartening  and  probably  often  resulted  in 
disgraceful  defeat. 

''It  must  have  been  a  great  disadvantage,  after  all, 
to  the  greater  men  or  women  of  the  lecture  platform 
who,  in  the  last  fifty  years,  were  brought  to  it  as  a 


344     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

matter  of  speculation,  because  people  desired  more  to 
see  them  than  they  did  to  hear  them.  Men  who  had 
done  great  deeds  in  other  fields — generals,  authors, 
statesmen,  adventurers,  discoverers  and  artists,  who 
were  not  dependent  upon  what  they  said  or  the  value 
of  their  addresses  for  the  ^gate  money' — must  have 
often  felt  that  the  mere  receipt  of  money  at  the  box- 
office  was  not  a  worthy  success. 

^'One  who  is  entirely  dependent  upon  the  usefulness 
of  his  topic  or  the  touching  power  of  his  words,  and 
who  has  no  advertised  reputation  to  bring  the  audience 
except  the  merits  of  his  own  work,  may  have  lesser 
crowds  and  shorter  newspaper  notices,  but  he  will  have 
the  abiding  satisfaction  of  doing  good,  and  will  separate 
his  work  from  the  flashy  admiration  of  a  thoughtless 
crowd.  Yet  I  should  say  that  the  ideal  public  teacher 
should  be  one  who  has  the  entertaining  power  to  draw 
all  classes  of  people  to  his  audience,  and  also  possess 
the  unchangeable  purpose  to  so  use  the  occasion  as  to 
leave  permanent  lessons,  which  will  make  the  listeners 
feel  afterwards  that  it  was  a  profitable  way  of  spending 
their  time.  People  do  not  expect  an  entertainment 
or  a  circus  when  a  public  speaker  is  introduced,  but  it 
is  reasonable  that  they  should  expect  to  be  kept  awake. 

''The  great  orators  whom  I  have  met  from  time  to 
time  upon  the  lecture  circuit  have  presented  a  great 
variety  of  ideas  and  manners.  Some  have  expressed 
the  deepest  thoughts  and  the  mightiest  topics  in  so  dull 
and  monotonous  a  manner  as  to  make  the  performance 
a  burlesque  instead  of  a  solemn  discussion.  Others 
have  treated  great  and  sacred  subjects  with  such  flip- 
pancy and  with  so  much  slang  as  to  disgust  the  audience 
and  make  their  friends  heartily  ashamed.  Some  have 
sought  exclusively  to  entertain  the  audience  with 
stories  or  exhibitions  of  mental  pyrotechnics  or  absurd- 


FIFTY  YEARS   ON  THE  PLATFORM  345 

ities,  which  did  furnish  entertainment  to  the  audience, 
but  which  have  left  no  permanent  impression  of  value 
on  the  daily  experiences  of  life. 

''Others  have  so  combined  the  attractive  things  of 
recreation  and  entertainment  with  the  high  purpose 
to  uplift  and  instruct,  that  the  listeners  forgot  the 
speaker  in  the  speech  and  went  away,  thinking  seriously 
and  smiling  happily.  The  number  of  such  orators  is 
very  few;  but  in  the  long  run  they  win  their  way  to  the 
esteem  and  affection  of  the  listeners.  I  have  often 
wished  that  I  had  so  begun  my  steady  practice  and  so 
followed  my  early  ambition  that  I  might  have  been 
accounted  among  the  latter. 

"Ah,  well!     For  us  all  some  sweet  hope  lies, 
Deeply  hidden  from  human  eyes; 
And,  in  the  Hereafter,  angels  may 
Roll  the  stone  from  its  grave  away." 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

Doctor  Conwell  as  a  Writer 

His  Biographical  Work.  Lives  of  the  Presidents. 
How  He  Wrote  His  Successful  Life  of  Spurgeon. 
Books  that  Have  Helped  Him.  His  Favorite  Authors 
and  Characters. 

WRITING  has  played  no  inconsiderable  part  in 
the  work  of  Doctor  Conwell,  and,  in  his  earlier 
life,  it  was  often  his  sole  means  of  support. 
Both  in  Minneapolis  and  in  Boston  he 
earned  his  living  by  newspaper  work  until  he  secured 
a  foothold  in  law  and  business.  And  even  then  he  did 
not  give  up  his  writing  entirely.  Long  before  he 
reached  success  in  the  legal  profession,  on  the  lecture 
platform,  or  in  the  ministry,  he  was  widely  known  as 
a  writer;  his  articles  in  the  New  York  Tribune  and  the 
Boston  Traveller  J  and  his  special  contributions  to  other 
papers  and  magazines  having  made  his  name  familiar 
to  the  reading  public  of  the  country. 

Had  Doctor  Conwell  chosen  literature  for  his  pro- 
fession, he  would  undoubtedly  have  become  one  of  the 
notable  and  influential  writers  of  his  day.  The  same 
vivid  power  of  description  that  makes  his  lectures  and 
other  public  addresses  so  interesting  characterizes  his 
pen.  He  holds  his  readers  quite  as  surely  as  he  holds 
his  hearers,  and  in  his  very  earliest  writings  this  quality 
was  marked.  His  ''Letters  from  the  Battlefields" 
were  commented  upon  all  over  the  country  for  their 
realistic  descriptions.  His  style  is  simple,  direct,  vivid. 
It  grips  the  reader;  carries  him  along  with  unflagging 

(346) 


DOCTOR   CONWELL  AS  A  WRITER  347 

interest;  and  leaves  hiin  with  a  good,  clear,  mental 
picture  of  the  subject,  and  with  its  point  driven  home 
in  such  a  way  that  it  is  not  easily  forgotten. 

Doctor  Conwell  says  that  writing,  as  a  career,  was 
not  active  enough  for  him;  that  he  never  thought  of 
it  seriously  as  a  life  work,  but  only  as  an  emergency 
measure.  Notwithstanding  this  fact,  he  has  done 
much.  His  chief  writing  has  been  biographical.  He 
began  this  in  connection  wdth  John  C.  Abbott,  whom 
he  met  through  Henry  Ward  Beecher.  He  collaborated 
wdth  Abbott  on  the  ''Lives  of  the  Presidents,"  and, 
after  Abbott's  death,  continued  the  work  alone. 

Of  his  work  as  a  biographical  writer,   Charles  A. 
Dana,  the  famous  editor  of  the  New  York  Surij  in  a 
letter  to  Harper  Brothers,  recommending  that  Doctor; 
Conwell  be  secured  to  write  a  series  of  books  for  an 
"American  Biographical  Library,"  says: 

''As  a  writer  of  biographies,  Doctor  Conwell  has 
no  superior.  Indeed,  I  can  say  considerately,  that  he 
is  one  of  America's  greatest  men.  He  never  advertises 
himself;  never  saves  a  newspaper  clipping  concerning 
himself;  never  keeps  a  sermon  of  his  own;  and  will 
not  seek  applause.  You  must  go  after  him  if  you  want 
him.  He  wdll  not  apply  to  you.  He  has  written  many 
books  and  has  addressed  more  people  than  any  other 
living  man.  To  do  this  without  writing  or  dictating 
a  line  to  advertise  himself  is  nothing  else  than  the 
victory  of  a  great  genius.  He  is  a  gem  worth  your  seek- 
ing, valuable  anywhere.  I  say  again  that  I  regard 
Russell  H.  Conwell,  of  Philadelphia,  as  America's 
greatest  man  in  the  best  form.  I  cannot  do  your  work; 
he  can." 

Many  of  the  biographies  which  Doctor  Conwell 
wrote  were  the  lives  of  political  candidates  for  the 
presidency.      After  the  Republican  party  had  nom- 


348     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

inated  its  candidates,  they  usually  sought  Doctor 
Conwell  to  write  a  biography  for  campaign  purposes. 
These  biographies  were  generally  penned  quickly  and 
had  a  large  sale. 

In  this  way  Doctor  Conwell  wrote  biographies  of 
General  U.  S.  Grant,  Rutherford  B.  Hayes,  James 
A.  Garfield  and  James  G.  Blaine.  But  even  though 
writing  these  biographies  rapidly  and  seemingly  for 
so  ephemeral  a  life  as  a  presidential  campaign,  he 
endeavored  to  put  into  each  some  underlying  purpose. 
He  has  said,  for  instance,  that  in  the  life  of  Garfield  he 
tried  to  show  how  it  is  possible  for  a  fatherless  boy, 
without  means  or  influence,  to  fight  his  way  upward  to 
positions  of  usefulness  and  honor.  In  later  years, 
many  men  have  told  him  that  his  life  of  Garfield 
showed  them  what  they  could  do,  and  they  started 
and  did  it. 

Russell  ConwelFs  most  successful  biography  was  his 
''Life  of  Charles  H.  Spurgeon.''  He  had  known 
Spurgeon;  had  interviewed  him;  and  had  written  out 
his  sermons.  So,  when  the  great  preacher  died,  a 
publishing  company  immediately  wired  Doctor  Con- 
well for  a  biography.  The  offer  came  at  a  time  when 
he  was  in  the  very  heaviest  work  of  the  church  and 
University.  He  did  not  see  at  first  how  any  time 
could  be  spared  for  extraneous  matter  such  as  this. 
But  the  publisher  was  insistent — and  incidentally 
there  was  a  little  mission  of  Grace  Baptist  Church  that 
needed  money. 

Doctor  Conwell  finally  sent  an  affirmative  reply; 
started  on  a  lecturing  trip  on  which  he  was  to  speak 
every  night;  took  his  secretary  with  him,  and  dictated 
the  book  on  the  train  during  the  day.  The  book  was 
finished  within  two  weeks  and  had  a  sale  of  125,000 
copies  in  four  months.     All  the  royalties  were  given  to 


DOCTOR  CONWELL  AS  A  WRITER  349 

the  mission  which  is  today  one  of  the  successful  churches 
in  Philadelphia.  It  may  be  interesting  to  know,  also, 
that  in  one  month  twenty-nine  letters  were  received 
from  young  men  who  had  decided  to  go  into  the  min- 
istry as  a  result  of  reading  the  book. 

His  biography  of  Blaine  was  written  almost  as  rap- 
idly. In  a  few  hours  after  Blaine  was  nominated  as 
candidate  of  the  Republican  party  for  the  presidency. 
Doctor  and  Mrs.  Conwell  boarded  a  train  for  Augusta, 
Maine.  In  three  weeks  the  book  was  completed. 
His  life  of  Bayard  Taylor  was  written  in  the  same  rapid 
fashion.  Russell  Conwell  had  traveled  with  Taylor 
through  Europe;  had  long  been  an  intimate  friend, 
and  was  therefore  particularly  well  fitted  for  the  work. 
The  book  was  begun  after  Taylor^s  death,  December 
19,  1878,  in  Germany,  and  completed  before  the  body  ^ 
arrived  in  America.  Five  thousand  copies  were  sold 
before  the  funeral. 

The  list  of  books  from  Doctor  Conwell's  pen,  how- 
ever, includes  many  works  besides  biographies.  He  I 
has  written:  ^'Lessons  of  Travel ;''  ^^Why  and  How 
the  Chinese  Emigrate;"  '^ Nature's  Aristocracy;'*  ' 
''History  of  the  Great  Fire  in  Boston;"  "Woman  and 
the  Law;"  '' History  of  the  Great  Fire  in  St.  John's;" 
''Little  Bo;"  ''Joshua  Gianavello;"  "Gleams  of 
Grace;"  "The  New  Day,"  and  "Every  Man's 
University." 

The  manuscript  which  he  prepared  most  carefully 
was  the  "Life  of  Daniele  Manin, "  which  was  lost  when 
his  home  at  Newton  Center,  Massachusetts,  w^as 
burned.  It  was  thought  that  the  manuscript  had  been 
destroyed;  but,  years  afterwards,  it  was  discovered  in 
a  barrel  in  the  barn,  where  it  had  been  placed  during 
the  excitement  and  forgotten.  It  was  too  late,  then, 
to  have  it  published. 


350     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

Doctor  Conwell  has  been  himself  much  written 
about.  Early  in  his  work,  William  C.  Higgins 
brought  out, ''Scaling  the  Eagle's  Nest."  This  has 
been  followed  by  ''The  Life  of  Russell  H.  Conwell" 
by  Albert  Hatcher  Smith,  "The  Modern  Temple  and 
Templars"  by  Robert  J.  Burdette,  and  an  interesting 
and  forceful  account  of  the  man  and  his  many  activities 
by  Robert  Shackleton. 

Doctor  Conwell's  pen  is  as  virile  today  as  ever. 
From  his  ripened  experience,  he  could  say  much  that 
would  be  helpful  as  well  as  intensely  interesting.  But 
the  great  burdens  which  he  now  carries  in  connection 
with  the  church,  the  University,  the  hospitals,  the 
Chautauqua  lectures  that  fill  his  summers  and  the 
many  lecture  engagements  that  crowd  his  winters, 
leave  little  time  for  writing.  Requests  constantly 
come  from  editors  and  publishers,  but  it  is  only  occa- 
sionally that  he  finds  time  to  comply. 

Russell  Conwell  has  always  been  a  lover  of  books 
and  of  the  best  hterature.  To  him  books  are  the 
voices  of  the  great  men  and  women  of  all  ages  telling 
him  their  inmost  thoughts.  In  his  early  life  he  eagerly 
read  and  re-read  the  few  volumes  which  the  home 
possessed  and  such  as  could  be  borrowed  from  neigh- 
bors. Moore  was  his  favorite  poet,  with  Milton  a 
close  second.  He  knew  the  works  of  these  two  by  heart 
from  constant  reading,  and  could  repeat  page  after  page 
of  their  poetry. 

Of  those  times  he  says :  "It  was  the  day  of  few  books, 
and  I  do  not  know  but  that  it  is  better  than  having  so 
many.  In  my  boyhood  we  read  thoroughly  what  we 
did  read.  In  those  days,  Bunyan's  ' '  Pilgrim's  Progress" 
and  the  Bible  were  read,  as  it  is  doubtful  if  they  are 
today." 

Biographies  were  also  favorite  reading  in  those  early 


DOCTOR  CONWELL  AS  A  WRITER  351 

days.  The  biography  of  Amos  Lawrence  and  of  Lord 
Cobden  were  two  that  greatly  influenced  him.  Samuel 
Smiles'  ''Self-Help"  and  Mathews'  "Getting  on  in 
Life"  also  had  a  potent  effect  upon  him. 

The  influence  of  this  early  reading  is  shown  in  the 
library  which  he  has  collected.  A  large  bookcase  is 
given  entirely  to  poems,  and  the  old  favorites  are 
prominent — Alice  and  Phoebe  Gary,  Whittier,  Milton, 
Lowell,  Dante,  Tennyson  and  such  writers.  The  only^, 
modern  one  is  Noyes.  Biographies  and  books  of  a 
biographical  nature  are  perhaps  most  numerous.  The 
lives  of  the  men  and  women  of  the  Bible  by  many 
authors  and  from  many  viewpoints  fill  shelf  after  shelf. 
One  sees  in  this  the  influence  of  those  Bible  stories 
which  were  read  to  him  as  a  child  by  his  mother.  It 
would  seem  almost  as  if  there  could  be  little  that  has 
been  written  on  the  famous  characters  of  the  Bible  that 
he  does  not  possess. 

There  are  also  in  abundance  the  "Lives  and  Letters" 
of  various  famous  men  and  women,  and  many  books 
on  character  building  in  general.  Life,  as  expressed  by 
the  individual  man  and  v/oman,  seems  to  be  Doctor 
Gonwell's  favorite  subject.  There  is  also  much  history 
— life  in  the  aggregate,  in  great  movements — and  books 
on  church  history  and  church  work.  A  volume  of  the 
Koran  gives  an  interesting  sidelight  on  the  sweep  of 
his  reading. 

Shakespeare  is  Doctor  Gonwell's  chosen  author; 
and  his  favorite  characters  in  literature  are  Little  Eva 
and  Rebecca  in  fiction,  Godfrey  in  poetry,  Kossuth  in 
history,  Hamlet  in  drama,  and  Gicero  in  oratory. 
There  are,  of  course,  many  books  on,  theology  and  vari- 
ous doctrinal  points  and  a  scattering  of  general  liter- 
ature. But  there  is  almost  an  absence  of  fiction.  ^ 
Real  life — life  as  it  has  been  lived  by  men  and  women 


352     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 
who  have  done  worth-while  things— is  what  surrounds 
him  when  he  has  time  to  sit  in  his  study  and  let  his 
eyes  rest  upon  the  shelves  that  line  its  walls  from  floor 
to  ceiling. 


CHAPTER  XXXVI 

Marginalia 

A  Favorite  Motto.     Home  Life.     Family  Bereave- 
ment.   Public  Honors. 

DOCTOR  CONWELL  has  been  greatly  helped 
in  accomplishing  the  quantity  of  work  that  he 
has  done  by  the  observance  of  a  rule  adopted 
early  in  life.      This  is  his  Do-It-Now  motto. 
In  speaking  of  it,  he  says: 

''Early  in  life  I  heard  of  Gladstone's  'Do-It-Now 
Club.'  The  club  consisted  of  seven  members.  I  made 
that  idea  the  rule  of  my  life,  and  it  has  succeeded 
wonderfully.  While  conversing  with  George  W.  Childs, 
in  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  office,  he  told  me  that  he 
also  had  heard  of  Gladstone's  club.  Mr.  Childs  formed 
a  Do-It-Now  club,  which  included  in  its  membership 
Anthony  J.  Drexel,  a  president  of  one  of  our  great 
railroads,  and  four  others. 

''For  thirty  years  Mr.  Childs  and  his  associates 
maintained  a  regular  correspondence,  keeping  alive 
the  do-it-now  idea  and  imparting  to  one  another  the 
success  of  this  principle.  I  do  the  next  thing  and  I  do 
it  promptly.  If  I  decide  that  a  certain  course  is  right,  ^ 
I  act  at  once.  I  do  not  put  it  off  until  tomorrow  or  the 
next  hour." 

Whether  the  thing  to  be  done  is  little  or  big;  whether 
it  is  important  or  a  mere  trifle;  Doctor  Conwell  inflex- 
ibly follows  this  rule.  Thus  odds  and  ends  of  work  do  ^ 
not  pile  up  on  him.  Everything  is  cleared  away  as 
soon  as  it  presents  itself.  Thus  many  things  are  done 
which  otherwise  would  not  be  accomplished. 

23  (353) 


354     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  fflS  WORK 

The  tremendous  activity  of  Doctor  ConwelFs  days 
has  left  him  little  time  for  the  enjoyment  of  home  life. 
He  is  a  lover  of  family  life,  but  duties  have  pressed  so 
relentlessly  that  he  has  had  to  relinquish  to  a  large 
extent  the  pleasure  that  most  men  find  in  their  homes. 
He  said  regretfully  once  to  a  friend;  ^^I  scarcely  ever 
have  time  to  pass  an  evening  with  my  family  or  to  read 
a  book  with  them.'' 

Even  Russell  Conwell's  hours  at  home  are  filled  with 
callers,  telephone  messages  and  secretarial  work.  In 
all  this  pressure  of  business  Mrs.  Conwell,  until  her 
death,  stood  ably  by  him.  She  was  constant  in  her 
though tfulness  and  care;  and  her  unselfish  attention 
to  many  of  the  details  of  life  gave  him  greater  freedom 
for  his  public  duties.     She  as  cheerfully  sacrificed  as  he. 

Once,  when  the  defalcation  of  a  trusted  official  threat- 
ened to  precipitate  a  disastrous  crisis  in  the  financial 
affairs  of  the  Temple  University,  she  unhesitatingly 
gave  all  that  she  possessed,  and  willingly  consented  to 
Doctor  Conwell  mortgaging  and  selling  all  that  he 
owned,  in  order  to  make  the  payments  that  would  tide 
the  University  over  the  emergency.  She  knew  it 
meant  that,  if  anything  happened  to  Doctor  Conwell, 
she  would  be  left  practically  penniless;  but  she  did 
not  flinch.  A  writer  in  one  of  the  country's  leading 
magazines,  in  a  series  of  articles  on  "Wives  of  Famous 
Pastors,"  said  of  Mrs.  Conwell: 

"Mrs.  Conwell  finds  her  greatest  happiness  in  her 
husband's  work,  and  gives  him  always  her  sympathy 
and  devotion.  She  passes  many  hours  at  work  by  his 
side  when  he  is  unable  to  notice  her  by  word  or  look. 
She  knows  he  delights  in  her  presence,  for  he  often  says 
when  writing,  ^I  can  do  better  if  you  remain.'  Her 
whole  life  is  wrapped  up  in  the  work  of  The  Temple 
and  all  those  multitudinous  enterprises  connected  with 
that  most  successful  of  churches. 


MRS.    SARAH   F.    CONWELL 

Second  Wife   of   Dk.   Conwell.      She  was  Miss  Sarah 

Sanborn  of   Newton  Centre,   Massachusetts 


MARGINALIA  355 

"She  makes  an  ideal  wife  for  a  pastor  whose  work 
is  varied  and  whose  time  is  as  interrupted  as  are  Doctor 
Conwell's  work  and  time.  On  her  husband's  lecture 
tours,  she  looks  well  after  his  comforts,  seeing  to  those 
things  which  a  busy  and  earnest  man  is  almost  sure  to 
overlook  and  neglect.  In  all  things  he  finds  her  his 
helpmeet  and  caretaker." 

Mrs.  Conwell  passed  away  in  1910,  leaving  a  void  not 
only  in  Doctor  ConwelFs  life  and  home  but  in  the 
church  activities  and  in  a  wide  circle  of  admirers  and 
friends. 

Another  bereavement  had  already  saddened  these 
later  years  of  Doctor  ConwelFs  life.  His  daughter, 
Agnes,  the  only  child  by  his  second  marriage,  passed 
away  in  1901,  in  her  twenty-sixth  year.  She  was  a 
remarkably  bright  and  gifted  girl ;  clever  with  her  pen ; 
charming  in  her  personality;  an  enthusiastic  and  suc- 
cessful worker  in  the  many  interests  of  the  church, 
college  and  hospital;  and  her  death  was  a  sad  loss 
to  her  family  and  friends. 

Doctor  Conwell  has  a  warm  place  in  the  affections 
of  Philadelphians.  Twice  has  the  city  given  itself 
over  to  demonstrations  in  his  honor.  In  1894,  upon 
his  return  from  a  trip  to  Europe,  whither  he  had  gone 
for  his  health,  a  public  reception  was  given  him  by  the 
citizens.  It  was  held  in  the  Pennsylvania  Academy 
of  Fine  Arts,  the  Mayor  being  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee in  charge.  For  hours  the  people  passed  in 
steady  procession,  welcoming  him  back  and  expressing 
appreciation  for  the  work  he  had  done  in  Philadelphia. 

In  1913,  a  still  greater  demonstration  was  made  in 
recognition  of  his  achievements  in  educational  and 
religious  circles  and  on  the  lecture  platform.  A  com- 
mittee composed  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of 
Philadelphia,  with  Hon.  John  Wanamaker  as  chairman, 


356     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

and  with  an  honorary  committee  consisting  of  the 
Secretary  of  State,  the  Governors  of  Pennsylvania, 
Maryland,  West  Virginia,  Ohio,  Delaware,  Texas, 
Connecticut,  Wyoming  and  Michigan,  had  the  cele- 
bration in  charge.  The  whole  city,  so  far  as  it  could 
do  so,  participated.  Telegrams  and  congratulations 
were  received  from  the  President  of  the  United  States 
and  other  prominent  men  and  women  of  the  country. 

'' Seldom  is  a  man  so  highly  honored  in  life,"  said  a 
Philadelphia  newspaper  in  describing  the  event,  *'as 
was  Dr.  Russell  H.  Conwell  last  night,  when  he  was 
escorted  through  cheering  throngs  down  Broad  Street 
from  his  home  to  the  Academy  of  Music.  It  was  a 
wonderful  tribute  to  the  man  so  often  called  'Phila- 
delphia's foremost  citizen,'  the  world-known  author, 
lecturer  and  philanthropist. 

''The  city's  most  eminent  men  and  women — persons 
in  all  walks  of  life  and  of  all  creeds — honored  Doctor 
Conwell.  The  commonwealth  honored  him.  So,  at 
least  by  proxy,  did  the  Secretary  of  State  of  the  United 
States  and  the  Governors  of  many  states." 

Upon  this  occasion  he  was  presented  by  the  District 
Attorney,  acting  for  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania, 
with  the  freedom  of  the  state.  This  took  the  form  of  a 
golden  key  in  a  box  of  cedar  of  Lebanon,  the  box  being 
appropriately  engraved. 

In  1915  another  public  recognition  came  to  him  in 
honor  of  the  work  he  has  done.  The  Governor  of  Penn- 
sylvania was  invited  by  a  committee  of  the  Panama- 
Pacific  Exposition  at  San  Francisco  to  select  a  man 
eminent  in  the  life  of  Pennsylvania,  upon  whom  the 
Exposition  could  confer  an  honor.  Governor  Brum- 
baugh— not  wishing  to  take  upon  himself  the  responsi- 
bility of  making  a  choice — asked  for  an  expression  of 
the  people  themselves  through  the  newspapers.    Doctor 


MARGINALU  357 

Conwell  was  one  of  the  three  men  selected,  and  his 
name  was  forwarded  to  the  Exposition  authorities  as 
being,  by  pubhc  vote,  one  of  Pennsylvania's  most  dis- 
tinguished and  best  loved  citizens. 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 

The  Message  of  a  Life 

The  Secret  of  Doctor  ConwelVs  Success.  He 
Emphasizes  the  Power  of  Right  Thinking  and  Tells 
How  to  Use  It  Intelligently.  The  Development  of 
Personality — a  Process  of  Education.  Doctor  Con- 
welVs Search  for  Knowledge  and  How  He  Found  It. 
What  True  Living  is.  In  Tune  with  the  Infinite, 
Doctor  ConwelVs  Life — a  Mighty  Inspiration  to 
Everybody. 


W 


<<"W^  T^HAT  everyone  is  the  better  for  seeing," 
says  an  English  writer,  '4s  how  Hfe  has 
been  actually  handled,  freshly  and  dis- 
tinctly, by  some  one  in  a  commonplace 
milieu  J  ^  What  more  commonplace  milieu  than  the 
environment  to  which  Russell  H.  Conwell  was  bom — 
the  home  of  a  poor  farmer  among  the  unfertile  hills  of 
New  England? 

As  we  have  seen,  he  had  no  money.  He  had  no 
influence  and  there  were  no  opportunities  for  develop- 
ment. The  possibility  for  his  life  to  reach  out  beyond 
the  boundaries  of  his  home  and  this  farm  seemed  as 
hopeless  as  it  does  to  many  a  boy  and  girl  similarly 
situated.  But  it  did  reach  out.  It  blossomed  and 
fruited  richly.  And  the  cheering  message  it  sends 
forth  is  that  everyone's  life  can  come  to  full,  rich 
development. 

Doctor  Conwell  maintains  that  he  had  no  special 
gifts.  He  had,  as  he  expresses  it,  a  "natural  pulling" 
toward  certain  things,    But  every  one,  he  points  out, 

(358) 


THE  MESSAGE  OF  A  LIFE  359 

has  a  ''natural  pulling"  toward  something.  It  is  his 
individuality,  the  ''Inward  Must"  as  Lowell  phrases 
it.  This  individuality  must  be  developed,  and  the 
means  to  do  so  are  on  all  sides.  Man's  part.  Doctor 
Conwell  believes,  is  to  see  and  utilize  them. 

Education  is  one  of  the  first  necessities  for  this 
development.  Education,  Doctor  Conwell  says,  is 
everywhere — in  the  field,  the  woods,  the  streams. 
The  securing  of  an  education  is  not  dependent  entirely 
upon  material  circumstances  or  wealth,  but  upon  the 
spirit's  seeing  and  hearing  what  is  around  it.  When 
at  Wilbraham,  he  wrote  to  a  little  boy  of  the  home 
neighborhood : 

"I  imagine  I  hear  you  saying,  'What  have  I  to 
study?'  I  have  not  the  books,  nor  the  necessary 
explanations  if  I  did  have  them.  Now,  if  I  read  you 
aright  you  do  not  know  whether  you  want  books  or 
not;  at  least,  you  do  not  know  what  ones.  Now  take 
the  advice  of  one  who  is  deeply  interested  in  your  wel- 
fare and  keep  thinking.  That  is  the  study  I  mean. 
WTien  you  go  into  the  barn  to  let  out  the  cows,  think. 
Think,  too,  when  you  see  a  rock  or  a  ledge;  of  how  it 
was  formed  and  how  the  elements  have  worn  it  away; 
or  if  it  is  in  a  sandy  place,  of  how  the  soil  has  added 
to  it. 

"When  you  see  a  stream  of  water,  think  how  that 
stream  has  flowed  for  centuries  and,  if  possible,  find 
the  place  where  it  flowed  a  hundred  years  ago,  for  it  is 
always  changing  its  course.  Think,  while  cutting  the 
grass  or  hay,  how  every  hollow  space  in  those  spears 
of  grass  is  filled  with  moisture  which  presses  out  and 
makes  the  stalk  grow  larger." 

This  reaching  out  for  knowledge  Doctor  Conwell  has 
proved  will  bring  knowledge.  Men  and  women  every- 
where are  ready  to  help  the  boy  or  girl  who  is  trying  to 


360     RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL  AND  HIS  WORK 

make  his  or  her  way.  Today,  anyone  who  is  willing 
to  work  can  get  an  education. 

Then,  when  one  has  fed  the  life  within  with  what  is 
necessary  to  its  growth,  Doctor  Conwell's  belief  is  that 
it  is  man's  part  to  let  this  life  express  itself  fully — to  let 
it  flow  without  check  or  hindrance.  There  must  be  no 
doubt  or  hesitation  or  fear  to  impede  its  progress. 
But,  in  addition,  it  must  be  expressed  in  accord  with 
good.  To  make  the  most  of  life,  says  he,  one  must 
recognize  good,  assimilate  good  and  express  good. 

Says  Tolstoy,  ''The  only  true  living  is  to  live  for  the 
soul;  for  God."  To  live  for  good,  sums  up  for  Tolstoy 
the  meaning  of  life.  Doctor  Conwell  believes  the  same. 
To  him  life  is  receptivity  to  and  co-operation  with 
the  divine  power.  Using  life  in  this  way  brings  it  to 
fulfilment. 

This  is  the  rock  upon  which  Russell  Conwell  has 
stood.  He  never  had  a  dollar  of  capital  in  any  enter- 
prise that  he  started.  He  commenced  his  quest  for 
an  education  with  nothing  but  a  determination  to 
secure  it.  He  married  without  ''prospects."  He 
started  life,  a  stranger  in  a  new  town,  without  a  dollar. 
His  first  pastorate  was  that  of  a  church  on  the  brink 
of  disbanding.  His  second  was  that  of  a  church  that 
was  apparently  a  failure.  He  began  Temple  University 
and  Samaritan  Hospital  without  financial  backing. 
Never  has  he  had  capital.    Never  has  he  had  influence. 

A  well-known  writer  says:  "The  biggest  and  best 
thing  about  Russell  Conwell  is  not  his  famous  lecture, 
'Acres  of  Diamonds,'  or  any  one  of  his  words  or  works. 
It  is  Russell  H.  Conwell,  a  boy  who  took  hold  of  a 
mighty  discouraging  personal  outlook  and  has  made  it 
one  of  the  most  valuable  human  estates  in  the  world 
today.  He  himself  is  more  inspiring  than  anything  he 
has  ever  said  or  done,  despite  all  he  has  said  and  all 
he  has  done." 


THE  MESSAGE   OF  A  LIFE  361 

This,  then,  is  the  inspiriting  message  of  Doctor 
Conwell's  Hfe,  a  message  that  he  has  proved  to  be 
true, — that  the  individuahty  given  each,  no  matter 
how  chained  by  circumstances,  can  be  expressed  to 
bring  jo>  to  himself  and  good  to  the  world. 


APPENDIX 


(363) 


I 

A  Peril  to  Democracy 

An  Interview  in  which  Doctor  Conwell  Points  Out 
an  Encroaching  Danger  in  Our  Educational  System. 

DOCTOR  CONWELL'S  close  touch  with  educa- 
tional matters,  together  with  his  own  struggles 
as  a  poor  boy  to  secure  an  education,  makes 
him  quick  to  detect  any  influence  that  may 
work  for  harm  in  the  scholastic  system  of  the  coun- 
try. One  such  evil  he  has  discerned  and  vigorously 
pointed  out. 

In  a  recent  address  he  said:  ''A  peril  menaces  the 
American  people  today,  of  which  they  do  not  yet  seem 
aware.  The  American  spirit — the  spirit  of  democracy 
— is  in  danger  of  being  killed.  The  germ  of  aristocracy 
is  being  planted.  Bars  are  being  raised  to  keep  the 
poor  boy  out  of  the  professions.  If  these  obstacles  are 
arbitrarily  increased,  we  will  eventually  have  in  this 
country  two  classes — a  peasant  class  and  an  aristo- 
cratic class.  They  may  not  be  so  named,  but  they 
will  be  so  in  fact.'^ 

This  statement  was  taken  up  by  the  newspapers,  and 
a  widespread  discussion  followed.  In  an  interview,  he 
told  in  detail  the  danger  he  saw  ahead  for  the  poor 
boy  and  ultimately  for  the  democratic  ideal  as  upheld 
in  this  country. 

''It  is  quite  true,"  Doctor  Conwell  said,  in  this 
further  discussion,  'Hhat  there  is  a  tendency  at  present 
to  shut  the  poor  boy  out  of  the  higher  vocations.  In 
spite  of  the  seeming  wealth  of  educational  opportunities 

(365) 


366  APPENDIX 

in  this  country  for  the  poor  boy,  there  is  a  movement  on 
foot  to  close  certain  doors  to  him.  They  can  only  be 
pened  by  a  key  of  gold.  If  I  were  starting  today  as  I 
did  fifty  years  ago — with  nothing  but  health  and 
determination  to  make  may  way  into  a  profession — 
I  could  not  succeed.  I  would  reach  a  point  where  I 
could  not  pass  without  the  open  sesame  of  jnoney. 

''I  will  illustrate  with  medicine,  because  that  has 
come  chiefly  under  my  observation.  But,  unless  this 
danger  is  checked,  the  same  conditions  will  prevail 
eventually  in  other  professions  if  they  do  not  already 
in  certain  instances.  He  took  up  a  pamphlet  bearing 
the  title,  '^ Medical  Education  in  the  United  States: 
Pages  from  the  Educational  Number  of  the  Journal  of 
the  American  Medical  Association,  August  22,  1914." 
He  turned  casually  from  one  page  to  another  and  read : 

^^In  ordej  to  secure  licenses  to  practice  medicine  in 
Alabama,  students  must  have  completed  two  years' 
work  in  an  approved  college  of  liberal  arts."  *'To 
secure  licenses  to  practice  medicine  in  California, 
students  matriculating  in  medical  colleges  must  have 
completed  at  least  one  year  of  recognized  college 
work!"  Colorado  requires  two  years'  study  without 
conditions  in  an  accredited  college.  A  four  years'  high- 
school  course  and  at  least  nine  months  of  collegiate  work 
are  what  Connecticut  demands.  ^'To  be  eligible  to 
practice  medicine  in  Illinois,  students  in  addition  to 
an  accredited  four-year  high-school  education  must  have 
completed  a  year  of  collegiate  work;"  he  read  again. 
^'New  Hampshire  says,  ^Only  graduates  of  medical 
colleges  registered  by  the  Regents  of  New  Hampshire 
are  eligible  to  obtain  licenses  to  practice  medicine.'" 

Doctor  Conwell  turned  page  after  page.  ''Almost 
every  state  in  the  Union  has  these  requirements. 
Here  is  the  law  in  Pennsylvania.    ^To  be  eligible  for 


APPENDIX  367 

license  to  practice  medicine  in  Pennsylvania,  students 
matriculating,  in  addition  to  a  four-year  high-school 
course,  must  have  completed  a  year's  work  either  in 
an  approved  college  of  liberal  arts  or  in  a  preliminary 
year  in  the  medical  college.  And  he  must  also  have 
completed  an  internship  of  at  least  one  year  in  an 
approved  hospital.' 

''You  will  notice  that  all  through  these  require- 
ments runs  the  word  'approved'  or  'acceptable.'  A 
great  danger  can  lurk  in  these  words.  I  do  not  say 
there  does  now.  I  merely  say  there  can.  The  world 
has  suffered  before  from  the  spirit  back  of  such  things, 
when  the  wrong  spirit  is  in  power." 

He  turned  a  few  more  pages  and  read,  "Standards  of 
the  Council  of  Medical  Education  of  the  American 
Medical  Association:  A  requirement  for  admission  is 
at  least  eight  semester  hours.  .  .  .  Thirty-two  weeks 
of  actual  instruction.  .  .  .  Under  no  circumstances 
should  credit  be  given  for  any  course  where  the  attend- 
ance has  been  less  than  eighty  per  cent  of  the  full 
time.  .  .  .  Not  to  rate  higher  than  Class  C,  any 
medical  college  which  gives  the  major  portion  of  its 
instruction  after  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 

"This  all  sounds  very  well.  It  seems  to  imply  that 
we  are  to  have  exceptionally  skilled,  well-instructed 
doctors  in  the  years  to  come.  But  what  does  it  mean? 
Do  hours  in  a  classroom  necessarily  mean  proficiency? 
Is  a  man  who  works  at  night  and  sleeps  until  one  or 
two  o'clock  the  next  day  less  able  to  study  after  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  than  some  rich  fellow  who 
dissipates  half  the  night  and  goes  to  his  classroom  at 
nine  o'clock  in  the  morning? 

"I  believe  in  proficiency.  I  believe  fully  in  all  the 
study  and  instruction  and  experimental  and  laboratory 
work  possible.    But  I  say,  let  examinations  be  the  test 


368  APPENDIX 

of  fitness — not  hours  in  classrooms,  or  credentials  from 
some  ^approved'  college.  Let  the  examinations  be  as 
rigid  as  possible.  We  cannot  be  too  careful  in  licensing 
medical  practitioners.  But  if  a  man  can  pass,  give 
him  his  license,  whether  he  has  spent  thirty-two  hours 
in  an  actual  classroom  or  has  studied  in  the  bam 
between  chores,  or  in  an  attic  half  the  night. 

'^My  honest  belief  is  that  the  man  who  works  to 
get  a  medical  education  from  sheer  love  of  the  pro- 
fession will,  as  a  rule,  make  a  better  doctor  than  one 
whose  tuition  is  paid  through  some  rich  college  by  his 
father.  We  are  shutting  out  the  poor,  ambitious, 
earnest  young  man  and  woman  from  the  medical 
fraternity,  and  in  time  from  other  professions — for 
this  tendency  will  spread  if  unchecked — when  we  say 
they  must  spend  so  many  hours  in  classrooms  and  that 
they  cannot  study  at  night;  that  is,  that  credits  from 
night  work  will  not  be  accepted  in  granting  licenses. 

''The  results  of  these  requirements  is  that  the  evening 
medical  schools  all  over  the  country  have  been  closed, 
and  all  those  young  men  and  women  who  have  been 
studying  in  these  night  classes  have  had  to  give  up 
their  studies. 

''Another  point  that  comes  to  mind  right  here  is  the 
fact  that  a  man  who  will  study  at  night  and  odd  times 
— who  will  work  in  this  way  to  get  his  education — has 
the  perseverance  and  grit  that  make  a  good  doctor. 
And  he  is  apt  to  have  the  physical  stamina  that  enables 
him  to  stand  the  strain  of  medical  work. 

"But  there  are  other  requirements  of  the  medical 
schools  now  that  will  have  an  effect  upon  the  future  of 
medical  students.  No  institution  can  be  recognized 
as  a  medical  school  from  now  on  unless  it  has  a  certain 
amount  of  money  invested  in  buildings  and  a  certain 
number  of  professors  whose  entire  time  is  given  to 


APPENDIX  369 

teaching  in  the  medical  school,  and  unless  it  has  a 
large  laboratory  and  carries  on  extensive  original 
research. 

''The  results  of  this  ruling  are  many.  Do  not  mis- 
understand me — the  more  suitable  the  buildings,  the 
better  equipped  the  laboratories,  the  more  skilled  the 
professors,  the  better  for  the  students.  I  believe  in 
having  the  very  best  it  is  possible  to  get  in  all  these 
matters;  but — "  Doctor  Conwell  paused.  ''What  does 
this  ruling  mean?  It  means  heavily-endowed  institu- 
tions— institutions  of  wealth — institutions  to  which  the 
wealthy  young  men  of  the  country  will  go. 

"Will  the  poor  boy  with  shabby  clothes;  the  boy 
who  cannot  enter  into  the  social  life  of  a  rich  university ; 
the  boy  who  must  attend  direct  from  shop  or  store; 
will  this  boy  want  to  enter  such  an  institution?  Or  if 
he  does  enter,  can  he  pursue  his  studies  there  with  that 
contentment  of  spirit  that  he  would  were  the  difference 
between  him  and  his  classmates  less  marked?  The 
exceptional  boy  might,  though  at  much  inward 
suffering. 

"But  not  every  poor  boy  would.  And  I  do  not  think 
that  the  poorer  institutions  that  are  doing  good  work 
and  whose  students  could  successfully  pass  the  examina- 
tions— were  examination  the  test — should  be  closed 
because  they  cannot  measure  up  to  these  requirements. 
I  say,  again,  that  the  work  of  the  students — not  the 
cost  of  the  buildings  nor  the  apparatus  in  the  laboratory 
— should  be  the  test  for  fitness  to  practice  medicine. 

"Then,  again,  the  necessity  for  costly  buildings  and 
apparatus,  and  professors  who  must  depend  entirely 
upon  teaching  and  not  upon  practice  for  their  incomes 
— and  I  am  not  so  sure  that  the  instructor  who  does 
not  practice  medicine  is,  in  some  departments,  the 
best  teacher;  but  that  is  a  side  issue  which  I  shall  not 


370  APPENDIX 

discuss  at  present — all  these  requirements  that  necessi- 
tate much  money  mean  concentration.  Concentration 
in  some  things  is  good;  but  it  can  be  overdone. 

^'I  believe  that  the  schools  for  the  people  should  be 
kept  near  the  people.  There  should  be  centers  for 
special  work,  and  one  great  national  institution  for 
the  highest  work.  Personally,  I  would  like  to  see  that 
institution  situated  at  Washington,  with  the  govern- 
ment providing  a  certain  amount  of  financial  support. 
Here  should  be  made  the  great  experiments  and 
investigations.  It  should  be  the  last  word  in  our 
medical  institutions;  the  greatest  medical  honor  to 
belong  to  it;  and  the  highest  professional  distinction 
to  graduate  from  it.  But,  for  the  simpler  grades  of 
medical  work,  there  should  be  medical  schools  scattered 
over  the  country  near  the  people.  Not  every  doctor 
needs  to  be  a  specialist  or  to  go  into  the  higher  research 
work  in  bacteriology  and  such  things. 

''We  need  more  doctors,  more  lawyers  and  more 
ministers  than  we  ever  did  before;  but  there  is  a 
large  class  of  work  awaiting  these  people  that  does  not 
require  post-graduate  or  special  study.  Nearly  all 
corporations  are  employing  their  own  doctors  and 
nurses.  Most  of  their  cases  are  the  simple,  everyday 
illnesses  that  befall  the  average  home.  A  doctor  for 
such  work  could  come  from  the  schools  near  the  people. 
This  does  not  mean  that  an  ambitious  man  cannot  go 
on  and  study  in  the  higher  schools  if  he  wants  to,  or 
that  an  unusual  or  difficult  case  could  not  be  referred 
to  a  specialist. 

''This  is  a  practical  need.  Let  us  meet  it  practically 
with  schools  where  men  who  can  do  this  work  can 
attend,  and  which  will  give  them  what  they  need. 
This  need  will  not  be  met  with  a  few  expensive  schools 
situated  perhaps  far  distant  from  the  homes  of  the 


APPENDIX  371 

students,  which  means  traveHng  expenses  and  board, 
and  which  require  them  to  take  a  curriculum  not 
essential  to  the  work  they  wish  to  do. 

''Suppose  that,  instead  of  keeping  among  my  people 
and  attending  to  the  practical  work  of  my  church,  I 
were  compelled — in  order  to  be  allowed  to  preach — to 
study  various  doctrinal  matters  and  examine  the  many 
theories  of  theology,  what  would  become  of  the  actual 
work  that  needs  to  be  done?  Let  those  fitted  for 
higher  research  work  and  who  want  to  do  it,  take  it  up. 
Let  others  who  want  to  do  a  different  kind  of  work 
have  the  opportunity  to  prepare  for  their  work.  We 
are  in  danger  of  getting  into  formalities — of  insisting 
upon  the  letter  and  forgetting  the  spirit. 

''It  will  soon  be  that,  unless  a  man  or  woman  is  ay 
graduate  of  a  school  of  journalism,  he  or  she  will  find 
it  difficult  to  obtain  a  position  upon  a  newspaper; 
unless  a  man  passes  so  many  hours  or  weeks  or  years 
in  a  college  classroom  he  will  not  be  admitted  to  the 
bar.  This  is  the  lurking  danger  that  I  see — that  not 
what  a  man  knows  will  be  the  test;  but  whether  he 
has  spent  so  many  hours  a  week — hours  of  daytime, 
too — in  'approved'  institutions,  which  must  be  richly 
endowed  and  consequently  few  in  number.  This 
means  undoubtedly  cutting  the  poor  boy  out. 

"No  young  man  can  reach  the  practice  of  medicine 
in  America  now  unless  he  has  money  enough  to  support 
himself  for  several  years  while  he  is  in  college  and  in 
day  medical  schools.  Thus  you  see  the  poor  boy  is 
shut  out  entirely  from  the  profession.  It  is  now 
practically  impossible  for  the  young  man  without 
capital  to  enter  the  medical  profession. 

"I  have  no  objections  to  standards  being  raised.^ 
But  to  require  study  in  definite  schools  selected  by 
Wealthy  and  influential  boards  is  an  injustice.     The 


372  APPENDIX 

man  who  does  the  most  in  any  line  of  work  is  the  man 
who  has  labored  with  both  his  hands  and  his  brain. 
We  today  are  profiting  by  the  toil  of  such  men.  But 
this  is  what  we  are  now  shutting  out,  and  the  next 
generation  will  suffer. 

'^Let  there  be  rigid  standards  of  examination — the 
same  in  every  state  if  this  be  deemed  desirable — a 
national  standard  as  it  were.  But  let  the  man  who  can 
pass  this  examination  be  given  his  license  to  practice 
medicine  or  dentistry  or  law,  or  whatever  it  is  that  the 
spirit  within  him  has  told  him  is  his  life-work,  no 
matter  how  he  got  his  knowledge.  Do  not  let  it  be 
obligatory  that  it  must  be  secured  by  passing  so  many 
hours  in  the  classroom  of  some  'approved'  institution. 

''If  this  latter  spirit  gets  in  control,  we  shall  see  an 
ever-widening  breach  between  the  people  of  this  coun- 
try; on  the  one  side,  the  poor  and  their  children  kept 
to  certain  walks  of  life ;  on  the  other  side,  the  rich  and 
their  families  taking  possession  of  our  professions  and 
so-called  higher  occupations.  And  the  poor  young 
man  or  woman  will  be  unable  to  cross  this  breach. 
I  think  it  is  an  eventuality  that  the  American  people 
should  face  open-eyed  and  see  if,  as  a  people,  they 
want  to  travel  in  this  direction." 

The  newspapers  and  journals  that  investigated  the 
matter  found  that  the  peril  that  Doctor  Conwell  had 
pointed  out  had  already  to  some  extent  taken  form. 
Upon  investigation  it  was  found  that  a  young  man 
who  wishes  to  become  a  physician  must  plan  to  give 
from  eleven  to  twelve  years  to  study  before  he  can 
get  his  license — four  years  in  high  school;  one  or  two 
years  in  college,  according  to  the  requirements  of  the 
medical  school  he  may  desire  to  enter;  four  years  in 
a  medical  school  and,  in  Pennsylvania,  one  year  in  a 
hospital,  before  he  can  receive  a  license  to  practice. 


APPENDIX  373 

In  Pennsylvania  and  in  certain  other  states,  if  a 
person  can  pass  an  examination  in  high-school  studies, 
a  certificate  to  this  effect  will  be  accepted,  whether  he 
has  actually  studied  in  a  high  school  or  not.  Also,  in 
Pennsylvania,  a  similar  examination  is  held  for  the  one 
or  two  years  of  college  work  required  for  entrance  to 
medical  schools.  But  not  all  medical  schools  will 
accept  this  latter  certificate.  They  insist  upon  the 
actual  hours  and  weeks  of  study  in  an  '^ approved" 
institution.  As  the  medical  schools  that  insist  upon 
this  will  be  acclaimed  as  having  the  highest  standards, 
it  is  a  case  of  wheels  within  wheels;  the  letter  instead 
of  the  spirit;   the  dollar  mark  upon  the  certificate. 

The  medical  student,  according  to  this  new  ruling, 
must  face  eleven  or  twelve  years  of  study.  What  are 
his  expenses  likely  to  be  for  that  period?  The  Colum- 
bia University  of  New  York  City,  in  its  Bulletin  of 
Information,  gives  a  table  of  students'  probable  expenses 
for  an  academic  year  from  October  to  June,  based  on 
students'  statements. 

The  lowest  figures  are  $507  for  thirty-nine  weeks. 
Admitting  that  the  would-be  medical  student  has 
taken  his  high-school  studies  at  night  or  at  odd  times 
and  has  earned  his  living  while  pursuing  them,  he  still 
has  one  or  two  years  of  college;  four  years  of  medical 
school;  and,  in  Pennsylvania,  one  year  of  hospital 
work  to  pay  for.  While  taking  these  studies,  since  he 
must  take  them  in  the  daytime  and  spend  a  specified 
number  of  hours  in  a  classroom  he  is  not  likely  to  be 
able  to  earn  much. 

Therefore,  during  the  thirteen  weeks  which  he  has 
free — his  term,  according  to  the  table  prepared  by  the 
Columbia  College,  occupying  thirty-nine  wrecks — he 
must  earn  enough  to  pay  his  current  expenses  and 
provide  the  $507  which  he  needs  for  the  student  year 


374  APPENDIX 

ahead.  Putting  the  student's  cost  of  hving  for  these 
thirteen  weeks  at  the  low  figure  of  five  dollars  a  week, 
he  must  earn  in  this  time  the  sixty-five  dollars  for 
board  and  the  $507  for  tuition;  which  means  that  he 
must  make  a  salary  of  almost  forty-five  dollars  a 
week  in  order  to  pursue  his  medical  studies  under 
present  requirements. 

The  boy  who  wishes  to  study  during  the  entire 
eleven  or  twelve  years,  without  turning  aside  to  work, 
must,  according  to  the  lowest  computation  based  upon 
the  figures  given  by  the  Columbia  University,  have  a 
capital  of  close  to  $6,000  to  draw  upon.  And  then, 
when  he  has  expended  this  amount  for  his  studies,  he 
is  only  ready  to  begin  practice.  He  has  as  yet  no 
income  from  his  work.  Does  it  not  look  as  if  the 
medical  profession — and  others  which  will  undoubtedly 
fall  into  line  if  this  spirit  grows — is  only  for  the  rich? 

The  reason  advanced  for  all  of  these  new  regula- 
tions is  the  raising  of  standards.  And  it  is  implied 
that  those  students  who  study  at  night  and  in  spare 
moments,  who  do  not  pass  a  required  number  of  hours 
in  classrooms  of  ^^ approved''  institutions,  are  not 
properly  fitted  for  the  work  which  they  are  undertaking. 

History  is  so  full  of  incidents  to  disprove  this  implica- 
tion that  it  would  scarcely  seem  worth  while  to  con- 
sider the  question,  were  not  the  effort  so  patent  to 
discredit  the  boy  who  studies  at  night.  Instantly  into 
mind  flashes  the  picture  of  Lincoln  studying  by  the 
light  of  the  logs  in  the  fireplace.  And  scores  of  illus- 
trations of  other  great  men  who  secured  their  education 
in  such  ways  could  be  given.  But,  say  those  who  are 
advocating  the  present  system,  conditions  were  dif- 
ferent then;  and  standards  were  accepted  in  times 
past  that  could  not  be  sanctioned  now. 

In  many  of  the  large  cities  at  the  present  time  are 


APPENDIX  375 

scores  of  men  who  obtained,  at  night  schools  and  in 
their  spare  moments,  the  education  that  enabled  them 
to  successfully  pass  the  examinations  required  for  the 
license  to  perform  the  work  in  which  they  are  now 
engaged.  It  mattered  not  where  they  studied.  The 
examination  was  the  test ;  they  passed  it ;  and  are  now 
living  their  lives  on  a  far  higher  plane.  And  they  are 
more  useful  in  their  family  life  and  as  citizens  than 
they  would  have  been  had  rulings  been  in  force  to 
keep  them  from  their  present  life-work. 
'*'  To  turn  again  to  the  medical  fraternity  for  examples, 
the  night  medical  school  of  the  Temple  University  has 
graduated  many  students  who  are  now  most  successful 
physicians.  One  of  the  foremost  specialists  in  Phila- 
delphia was  a  hat  finisher  in  one  of  the  city's  large 
factories  when  he  began  the  study  of  medicine.  He 
studied  at  night  at  the  Temple  University  and  worked 
during  the  day.  He  finally  finished  his  course,  grad- 
uated, was  appointed  resident  physician  at  one  of  the 
city  hospitals,  and  is  now  doing  excellent  work  as  a 
specialist.  His  persistence  and  genuine  love  of  the 
work  carried  him  through.  A  required  number  of 
hours  in  an  '^approved"  institution  would  have 
blocked  the  way. 

A  clerk  in  the  United  States  Army  service  in  the 
Philippines  who  wished  to  study  medicine  heard  that 
it  was  possible  to  take  a  night  course  in  Philadelphia. 
He  secured  a  transfer  from  his  position  to  one  at  Gray's 
Ferry — a  suburb  of  Philadelphia — and  began  his  night 
studies  at  the  Temple  University.  He  graduated 
high  in  his  class ;  won  in  a  competitive  examination  for 
intern  at  the  Philadelphia  Hospital;  finished  his 
service  there;  and  then  went  to  Hawaii,  where  he  is 
one  of  the  leading  specialists  in  certain  diseases. 

One  of  the  health  officers  of  Portland,  Oregon,  is  a 


376  APPENDIX 

graduate  of  the  night  medical  school  of  the  Temple 
University. 

A  stenographer,  who  used  his  spare  time  for  medical 
studies  at  the  Temple  University,  now  has  a  fine 
practice  and  is  in  charge  of  the  laboratory  work  in  one 
of  the  country's  finest  hospitals. 

A  clerk  in  a  cigar  factory,  who  pursued  his  medical 
studies  at  the  Temple  University  as  time  and  money 
permitted,  filled  very  satisfactorily  the  position  of 
resident  physician  in  a  city  hospital;  is  now  a  lecturer 
in  a  medical  institution;  and  has  a  successful  practice. 

One  of  the  police  surgeons  of  Philadelphia  secured 
his  medical  education  by  studying  at  the  Temple 
University  during  his  spare  hours.  He,  also,  is  a  lec- 
turer in  one  of  the  city's  medical  schools  and  has  held 
the  position  of  resident  physician  in  a  hospital  there. 

The  first  on  the  list  in  one  of  the  examinations  for 
interns  at  Blockley — the  Municipal  Hospital  of  Phila- 
delphia— was  a  graduate  of  the  Temple  University 
night  medical  school.  After  his  work  at  Blockley,  he 
entered  the  army  service  and  is  now  in  general  practice 
and  most  successful. 

Several  teachers  have  taken  medical  courses  in  their 
spare  hours  simply  to  help  them  in  their  school  work. 
The  superintendent  of  a  Philadelphia  school  holds  a 
license  obtained  in  this  wa}^  He  worked  for  it  that 
he  might  be  of  more  use  in  his  present  position. 

An  Episcopalian  minister  of  New  Jersey,  who  was  in 
charge  of  a  mission  church  and  felt  that  a  knowledge  of 
medicine  would  help  him  in  his  work,  studied  in  spare 
time,  passed  the  examination,  and  thus  is  able  to  do 
much  good  work  among  the  poor  of  his  parish. 

Such  instances  could  be  multiplied  by  the  score. 
But  had  "hours"  and  ''approved"  institutions  been 
required,  none  of  these  men  could  be  doing  the  work 


APPENDIX  377 

they  are  now  accomplishing.  Opportunity  would 
have  been  taken  away  from  them,  and  their  usefulness 
limited.  They  would  have  been  kept  in  the  ^' class"  in 
which  they  were  born.  They  could  not  have  risen  to  a 
life-work  for  which  they  were  fitted  by  natural  ability 
irrespective  of  birth. 

Doctor  Conwell  has  so  vigorously  combatted  the 
evil;  he  has  so  stirred  public  opinion  to  the  danger 
to  democratic  institutions  lurking  in  it  that  it  is  not 
likely  that  it  will  obtain  the  hold  which  it  might,  had 
he  not  discerned  it  and  fought  it. 


II 

**The  Battlefields  of  the  Rebellion" 

Letter  from  Russell  Conwell  on  the  Mountains  and 
Valleys  Around  Chattanooga  and  the  Present 
Appearance  of  Lookout  Mountain,  Published  in 
the  ^^  Daily  Evening  Traveller' '  of  Boston y  July  IS, 
1869, 

<  <  ^"^H,  the  mountains,  how  we  love  to  gaze  upon 
I       1  them  and  dream!     How  our  soul  fills  with 
V^>/  unspeakable    pleasure    as    we    contemplate 
the  rocky  cliffs  and  the  roaring  gorges  of  the 
mountains!   It  is  the  inspired  pleasure  which  one  feels 
only  when  he  looks  upon  the  mighty  works  of  God. 
The  spirit  of  the  heroes  and  demons  of  the  mountains! 
Are  they  a  myth?     Nay.     Go!  Ye  disbelievers  who 
laugh  at  ghost  stories  and  fairy  tales;   sit  beside  that 
sweet  waterfall  on  the  cliff  side  of  Lookout  Moun- 
tain, and  tell  if  ye  doubt  their  existence  then. 

''Go!  sit  on  the  jutting  rock  that  is  bathed  with  the 
spray,  and  gaze  up  at  the  little  stream  as  it  leaps  over 
the  rock  forty  feet  above;  and  then  at  the  snowy  spray 
cloud  that  rolls  and  floats  away — away  down  among 
the  bushes  and  trees  forty  feet  below.  The  stout  old 
trees  creak  and  sway  in  the  winds  above;  the  pines 
down  the  mountainside  moan  and  the  waterfall  laughs. 
Away  through  the  trees  are  those  other  mountains, 
shadowy  and  blue,  just  veiling  the  sky  of  the  far-off 
horizon.  He  who  can  sit  there  alone,  surrounded  by 
those  jagged  rocks  and  monumental  mountains,  and 
see  no  German  fairies,  English  ghosts,  Arabian  peris, 

(378) 


APPENDIX  379 

or  Norwegian  demons,  hath  surely  no  taste  for  natural 
beauty;  nor  a  fit  appreciation  of  the  all-inspiring 
works  of  the  Almighty. 

'^Do  the  boys  remember  that  Lookout  Mountain 
Battle?  Joe  Hooker  himself  did  not  believe  it  could 
be  done.  'Tell  them  to  come  back/  shouted  the 
general  in  command.  But  no  notice  of  orders  direct- 
ing a  retreat  was  taken,  and  onward  and  upward  they 
went,  climbing  precipices,  rocks  and  trees,  swinging 
to  the  edge  of  ledges;  pulling  one  another  up  among 
the  clouds;  caring  nothing  for  the  hideous  shell  that 
came  crashing  down  among  the  trees  until  the  citadel 
was  taken  and  one  more  victory  for  freedom  was 
recorded  in  the  world's  history. 

''Grand  Old  Mountain!  Grand  old  soldiers  of  a 
grand  old  people!  How  proud  of  our  nation,  our 
country  and  our  people  were  we  the  day  we  visited 
Lookout  Mountain.  The  changes  were  many  which  in- 
tervened between  that  immortal  day  and  the  May  day 
when  we  were  there.  The  rifle  pits  which  Hooker's 
Division  carried  and  from  which  his  forces  charged 
up  the  mountain  had  nearly  all  been  washed  away; 
enough  was  left,  however,  to  mark  the  direction  of  the 
line,  and  recall  to  mind  the  terrible  events  of,  'that 
great  avenging  day;'  but,  farther  up,  the  mountain- 
side the  trees  and  moss  have  grown  anew;  the  bushes 
which  the  soldiers  uprooted  as  they  pulled  themselves 
up,  had  decayed  and  given  place  to  others,  and  nothing 
remains  to  remind  us  of  war. 

"  'Nothing,'  did  we  say?  Not  so.  Under  a  little 
pine  tree,  near  the  precipitous  ledge  which  the  boys 
will  remember,  we  found  a  human  skeleton.  We  were 
pulling  ourselves  along  up  the  edge  of  the  rock  and, 
finding  our  footing  insecure,  we  seized  upon  the  prof- 
fered branch  of  a  neighborly  pine.    Up  it  came  by  the 


380  APPENDIX 

roots,  taking  with  it  a  thin  scale  of  soil  which  covered 
the  rock,  and  exposing  to  the  sun  the  grinning  skull 
of  a  Union  soldier.  Near  it  was  an  old  Springfield 
musket  covered  with  rust  and  broken  in  twain.  The 
bayonet,  so  blackened  and  tarnished  that  we  first  took 
it  for  a  stick,  was  thrust  into  the  ground  near  the 
skull  and  the  finger  bones  lay  about  it,  as  if  the  sol- 
dier had  clasped  it  when  he  died. 

^'A  bundle  which  had  evidently  been  a  knapsack 
lay  a  few  feet  off,  and  had  the  appearance  of  being  in 
use  as  a  bird^s  nest,  for  little  pieces  of  blue  overcoat 
and  threads  of  the  gray  blanket  were  neatly  arranged 
in  the  shape  of  a  nest,  which,  however,  had  been  torn 
by  a  fox  or  other  marauding  animal.  In  all  proba- 
bility the  little  bird  had  made  her  nest  in  the  decaying 
knapsack  and  the  little  four-footed  enemy  of  birdly 
innocence  came  and,  in  the  presence  of  the  soldier's 
bones,  broke  the  eggs  and  killed  the  songster.  It  was 
a  matter  of  surprise  to  us  that  the  wild  beasts  which 
came  so  near  to  search  for  eggs  should  not  disturb  the 
bones  of  the  lost  soldier. 

"A  few  pieces  of  the  spinal  column  lay  scattered 
around,  but  otherwise  the  skeleton  was  entire.  Near 
the  spot  we  found  a  United  States  infantry  button, 
and  the  soles  of  a  pair  of  shoes,  but  nothing  to  identify 
the  man  who  gave  his  life  for  the  nation  in  that  dread- 
ful charge.  Whose  son  or  brother  he  was — whose 
husband  or  father — eternity  alone  can  tell!  Yet  we 
could  not  avoid  the  thoughts  as  we  stood  gazing  upon 
the  sad  scene,  that  perchance  somebody  who  reads 
the  Traveller,  or  some  one  we  personally  know,  might 
be  the  dearest  one  to  this  soldier  of  Hooker's  Corps 
from  whom  his  friends  had  never  heard. 

''  'Never  been  heard  from'  is  his  record  on  the  page 
of  history!     ^Dead'  in  the  record  of  mortals.      'In 


APPENDIX  381 

Heaven/  we  hope,  in  the  records  of  eternity.  With 
no  implements  to  bury  him,  and  no  soil  deep  enough 
if  we  had,  we  could  not  do  otherwise  than  clamber  on, 
leaving  the  bones  to  be  ground  to  dust  by  the  merciless 
hand  of  time. 

''Pulpit  Rock,  from  which  Jeff  Davis  harangued  the 
Confederates,  and  near  which  the  rebels  had  some  of 
their  heaviest  guns,  appeared  as  familiar  as  an  old 
friend,  and  seemed  to  smile  in  derision  at  the  change- 
able growth  and  decay  that  has  been  going  on  around. 
The  shell-split  trees  have  recovered  from  their  wounds ; 
the  earthworks  have  washed  away;  the  hospital  build- 
ings and  negro  huts  are  gone;  yet  the  old  rock  stands 
there  on  the  summit  like  a  sentinel,  and  will  stand 
there  in  the  hundreds  of  years  to  come,  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  slave-holding  rebellion  and  the  charge  of 
the  National  troops.  To  us  whose  pride  had  been 
touched  in  the  days  of  war  it  seemed  to  say:  'When 
I  remind  visitors  of  the  battle,  I  also  insinuate  that 
below  me  the  troops  of  the  stigmatized  'paper  colored 
vision'  rebutted  the  slurs  that  the  Western  troops  saw 
fit  to  cast  upon  them  for  belonging  to  the  spade-and- 
shovel  Army  of  the  Potomac'  But  with  the  history 
of  rebellion  or  battles  we  have  little  to  do. 

"We  pass  on  down  the  eastern  slope  of  the  great 
mountain  to  ascertain  how  Chattanooga  appears 
today.  The  old  forts,  which  covered  every  hill  of  the 
little  town,  look  like  Indian  mounds,  so  torn  and  shat- 
tered, decayed  and  washed  are  they  now.  A  few 
more  years  and  even  these  red  mounds  will  have  dis- 
appeared and  the  'great  railroad  center'  of  Chatta- 
nooga will  not  dream  of  battle  or  siege.  The  town 
itself  has  not  recovered  from  the  war,  unless  it  always 
had  a  forsaken,  slovenly  appearance.  Removing  the 
tents,   the  barracks  and  the  stables  and  filling  the 


382  APPENDIX 

quartermaster's  stores  and  the  commissary  warehouse 
with  peanuts  and  candy,  soda  water  and  persimmon 
beer  is  a  sinking  in  poetry  that  strikes  the  returner 
first  as  being  a  Httle  ridiculous. 

''The  old  headquarters  where  Thomas,  Grant,  Sher- 
man and  McPherson  had  their  quarters,  still  stand 
near  the  town  house,  so  unchanged  that  we  felt  as  if 
one  of  them  ought  to  be  sitting  on  the  porch.  A  new 
bridge  has  been  built  across  the  river,  and  the  old 
swing  ferry  is  going  to  decay.  Cameron's  hill  with  its 
washed  earthworks  is  said  to  be  destined  for  the 
grounds  and  mansion  of  a  Massachusetts  man  who 
went  to  Chattanooga  to  engage  in  building  the  new 
railroad  line  south  to  Charleston,  South  Carolina. 
Some  ruins  and  dilapidated  walls  of  houses  destroyed 
during  the  war  still  remain,  although  many  have  been 
cleared  away  preparatory  to  reconstruction. 

''The  old  railroad  depot  still  bears  the  marks  of  the 
soldiers'  penknives,  and  the  name  of  many  a  sentinel 
who  wished  thus  to  immortalize  himself  stands  out  in 
bold  relief  from  the  soft  boards  on  which  it  is  carved. 
The  short  trains  of  half-loaded  cars  that  now  come  and 
go,  form  a  striking  contrast  with  the  long,  over-loaded 
trains  that  came  and  went  when  Sherman  was  march- 
ing on  Atlanta.  The  fields  around,  which  were  cov- 
ered so  thick  with  tents  when  Bragg  threatened  the 
town,  and  on  which  has  been  so  many  brigade  drills 
and  dress  parades,  are  now  verdant  with  growing 
grain. 

"It  was  exceedingly  gratifying,  amid  the  many 
changes  that  have  taken  place,  to  see  at  least  one 
familiar  object.  The  National  flag  was  there.  About 
half-way  between  Orchard  Knob  and  the  town,  and 
near  the  Chattanooga  and  Knoxville  Railroad,  stands 
the  National  Cemetery.  And  above  it,  in  all  its  pride 
and  glory,  waves  the  ensign  of  the  United  States. 


APPENDIX  383 

''When  we  visited  the  cemetery  a  touching  incident 
occurred,  which  we  cannot  refrain  from  putting  on 
record.  It  was  nearly  dark.  The  flag  was  hauled 
down,  the  keeper  shut  the  gate,  and  the  dew  was 
beginning  to  fall.  We  clambered  over  the  fence  and 
strayed  among  the  graves,  endeavoring  to  find  how 
many  of  the  Second  and  Thirty-third  Massachusetts 
lay  there,  supposing  ourself  to  be  the  only  person  in 
the  grounds.  Suddenly,  from  a  little  clump  of  graves 
beyond  the  flagstaff,  a  voice  arose  as  clear  and  sweet 
as  an  angel's  singing  the  familiar  words: 

"  'When  we  hear  the  music  ringing, 

In  the  bright  celestial  dome; 
When  sweet  angel  voices  singing, 

Gladly  bid  us  welcome  home; 
To  the  land  of  ancient  story, 

Where  the  spirit  knows  no  care; 
In  that  land  of  hght  and  glory, 

Shall  we  know  each  other  there? ' 

''Had  a  voice  from  the  tomb  pronounced  the  approach 
of  the  last  great  day,  we  could  not  have  been  more 
startled,  so  quiet  and  still  had  the  cemetery  been. 
For  a  moment  we  stared  in  the  direction  from  which 
the  voice  proceeded,  uncertain  whether  all  the  ghost 
stories  of  our  youth  were  not  coming  true  and  hoping, 
if  it  was  the  voice  of  a  spirit,  that  it  would  wait  for 
us  to  'retreat  in  good  order'  before  it  resorted  to  any 
fiercer  demonstration  to  deprive  us  of  our  wits.  After 
a  second  thought,  however,  we  concluded  that  it  was 
the  voice  of  a  woman  and,  as  some  women  are  but  our 
ideals  of  angels,  it  did  not  take  much  from  the  interest 
of  the  occasion. 

"Going  up  to  the  flagstaff  as  silently  as  we  could, 
we  sat  down  upon  a  mound  and,  when  the  second 
verse  began,  we  endeavored  to  chime  in  the  bass.     In 


384  APPENDIX 

that  we  were  unkind.  We  ought  to  have  known  that 
if  a  woman's  voice  could  startle  us,  how  much  more 
alarming  would  it  be  to  a  woman  to  hear  a  voice  at 
once  suggestive  of  the  men  whose  graves  surrounded 
her,  singing  such  a  song  with  her.  But  we  did  not 
stop  to  think.  Impulse,  nothing  else,  was  our  motive. 
So  we  sang;  with  just  such  a  consequence  as  any  man 
of  common  sense  might  have  foreseen. 

^'She  had  reached  the  chorus  in  which  the  bass 
repeats  the  words,  ^we  shall  know'  while  the  soprano 
prolongs  the  sound  of  the  word  '  know, '  before  she 
seemed  to  discover  that  she  was  not  singing  alone  and, 
with  a  shriek  as  piercing  as  the  song  was  sweet,  a  lady 
in  black  started  from  the  grave  of  a  soldier,  exclaim- 
ing in  hysterics  'What  is  that.  Oh!  Oh!  My  God! 
Oh  dear!  Oh  dear!  Oh  dear,  what  shall  I  do!' 

''^I  did  not  intend  to  frighten  you.  I  am  exceed- 
ingly sorry  for  it,'  said  I,  stepping  out  from  the  staff. 

^'  ^Oh  sir,  was  it  you?  Did  you  sing?'  exclaimed 
she,  wiping  her  eyes  with  a  handkerchief  and  uttering 
an  hysterical  laugh — half  cry  and  half  laugh — and 
looking  wildly  toward  the  gate. 

"  'I  do  not  wonder  that  my  Binging  frightened 
you,'  said  I,  'but  it  is  a  question  of  which  of  us  was  the 
most  startled.'  So  saying,  we  offered  to  escort  her 
to  her  home  as  it  was  growing  dark.  But  this  she 
declined,  saying  she  wished  to  stay  a  while  longer 
near  this  spot,  as  she  'must  go  tomorrow'  and  we 
left  her  kneeling  by  the  grass  on  the  grave  of  an  Ohio 
soldier,  murmuring  again  the  song,  'Shall  we  know 
each  other  there?'  Ten  thousand  conjectures  have 
we  cooked  up  in  regard  to  this  lady  and  why  she  was 
there.  But,  as  we  did  not  see  her  again  and  none  of 
our  explanations  may  be  the  true  one,  we  must  leave 
this  tale  so  far  uncompleted. 


APPENDIX  385 

'^The  next  day  we  strolled  along  Missionary  Ridge, 
to  find  such  traces  as  might  remain  of  that  great 
November  battle  when  the  troops  by  unexampled  brav- 
ery out-generaled  their  own  officers.  But  the  growth 
of  the  woods  and  the  action  of  the  heavy  rains  have 
obliterated  nearly  every  mark  of  the  battle;  and, 
without  a  guide,  a  stranger  to  the  field  must  have 
great  difficulty  in  finding  the  'line  of  battle.'  Occa- 
sionally a  shattered  tree;  here  and  there  an  old  shell 
in  the  thicket;  and  little  open  spots  where  works  once 
stood,  are  all  that  is  left  on  the  spot  to  tell  the  tale 
of  war. 

''All  the  soldiers  who  were  buried  here — both  Fed- 
eral and  Confederate — have  been  taken  up  and 
moved  to  Chattanooga.  Near  the  place  where  Sher- 
man's Division  made  the  'most  brilliant  charge  of  the 
war'  we  found  the  picket  posts,  in  some  instances  just 
as  the  soldiers  left  them  five  years  ago.  Some  were  of 
standing  logs — one  end  on  the  ground,  the  other  lean- 
ing against  a  tree — and  all  placed  near  enough  together 
to  protect  the  picket  behind  them  while  he  rested  his 
gun  across  the  top.  In  other  places  short  pieces  of 
stone  wall,  or  a  leaf-filled  hole  in  the  ground,  showed 
where  some  picket  took  measures  to  protect  himself. 
For  hours  we  traveled,  clambering  up  rocks,  over 
trees,  and  through  groves  until,  starting  down  the 
mountain  toward  Chickamauga  Creek,  we  stopped  in 
at  a  mud-chinked  log  hovel  to  rest  and  get  out  of  the 
blistering  sun. 

"The  hut  was  occupied  by  a  tall,  thin  woman,  about 
forty  years  of  age,  a  man  of  about  the  same  age,  and 
a  little  boy  of  ten  years.  All  three  were  the  dirtiest, 
raggedest  and  filthiest  persons  we  have  had  the  mis- 
fortune to  see.  The  woman  was  sucking  a  snuff -daubed 
rag  in  her  mouth,  and  snuffing  the  same  nasty  material 

25 


38G  APPENDIX 

up  her  nose.  The  old  man's  chin  and  whiskers  were 
dripping  with  tobacco  juice,  his  feet  were  bare,  and 
on  his  head  was  a  remnant  of  a  faded  felt  hat.  With 
the  old  pipe  in  his  mouth,  his  general  appearance  gave 
us  a  good  personification  of  indolence  and  poverty. 

''The  little  boy  seemed  to  have  inherited  all  the 
worst  characteristics  of  them  both,  which,  together 
with  an  acquired  taste  for  swearing  and  kicking  his 
mother,  made  him  master  of  the  position.  When  we 
rapped  at  the  entrance,  the  little  fellow  ran  to  the 
door  before  his  lazy  ancestors  could  muster  sufficient 
courage  to  rise,  and,  kicking  our  shins,  demanded  if  we 
didn't  know  better  than  to  'be  around  a  gemmen's 
house  making  sich  a  cussed  row.'  The  old  man  came, 
however,  and  by  means  of  sundry  kicks  and  cuffs 
succeeded  in  quieting  the  human  animal,  and  at  once 
invited  us  in. 

"  'Do  you  live  here?'  inquired  we,  for  want  of  any- 
thing else  to  say. 

"  'Wall,  the  ole  ooman  and  I  manige  ter  stop  here,' 
said  the  man;  'ony  Bill  here,  he's  kind  o'  unsettled. 
Bill  is  kinder  o'  rude  sometimes,  but  ses  I  ter  ther  ole 
ooman  to  ther  day,  we  mustn't  lick  Bill  as  we  would 
a  nigger;  and  ses  she  ter  me,  I  don't  think  I  would 
nuther.     So  we  don't.' 

"The  conversation  then  turned  on  the  weather  and 
several  topics,  and  finally  we  asked  him  what  he 
managed  to  do  for  a  living. 

"  'Der,'  said  he,  'I  jurst  works  around  and  git  a  few 
dollars  huntin'  and  diggin'  wild  arbs,  and  then  I  cums 
hum  to  the  ole  ooman,  and  ses  I  ter  her.  Let's  'joy  it, 
and  so  we  'joy  it.  If  Bill  wasn't  unsettled,  wede  be 
purty  good  situated.  But  ther  cussed  niggers  are 
leavin'  or  dyin'  off,  and  sum  on  us  are  gettin'  'fraid 
we'll  get  starved  out  sum  day.' 


APPENDIX  387 

"  ^I  should  think  you  would  get  a  better  living  if 
the  negroes  were  all  gone,'  said  we. 

''  'Oh  no,  the  niggers  have  always  done  the  dirty 
work,  and  all  ther  liftin'  and  sich,  which  as  how  the 
white  folks  of  my  persuasion  arn't  able  to  do,  an 
wouldn't  if  they  cood.  The  niggers  were  made  to 
wait  on  the  white  folks.  They  haint  got  nothin',  and 
I'd  like  ter  know  what  in  the  devil  they  would  do  if 
they  didn't  look  arter  white  folks.  They  haint  got 
nothin'.  If  the  Yankees  are  goin'  to  free  them  and 
carry  'em  all  off  to  Lobeli  or  Loberia  or  sumwhat,  I 
be  doomed  if  I'll  ever  do  another  scratch  of  work. 
Besides,  the  ole  ooman  is  of  the  same  'pinion,  and 
I'de  just  like  ter  know  what  in  cresshun  the  govern- 
ment '11  do  then.' 

"  'The  negroes  are  free  now,'  said  we,  'and  over 
twelve  hundred  thousand  have  died  off  since  the  war.' 

"He  started  to  his  feet  in  astonishment  at  the  news, 
exclaiming,  'Ther  devil;    is  that  so,  stranger?' 

"  'Wair  continued  he,  filling  his  pipe  and  putting  in 
a  fresh  quid  '  I  dunno  as  I  care  for  these  folks  down  at 
the  salt  water,  as  long  as  ther  folks  round  here  can't 
git  white  men  like  me  ter  dewin'  nigger's  work.' 

"  'Do  you  own  the  land  around  here,'  inquired  we, 
glancing  out  of  the  door. 

"  'Lor',  lor',  no,'  said  he,  apparently  astonished  at 
the  question.  'This  land  an'  cabin  allers  belonged  to 
Col.  Billin's,  on'y  I've  lived  in  this  place  so  long  he 
ses  ter  me  t'other  day,  ses  he,  Mr.  Parier,  yer  needn't 
never  move.     So  now  I  'joy  life.' 

"  'I  should  think  since  the  war  that  it  would  be 
hard  to  get  a  comfortable  living,'  said  we. 

"  'No  trouble  'tall,  none  'tall.  The  ole  ooman  and 
I  and  Bill,  we  eat  taters  mos'ly,  unless  corn  be  handy, 
an'  we  does  it  jist  to  bring  up  Bill  to  be  inderpendent. 


388  APPENDIX 

A  man  ken  liv'  on  a  mighty  little  if  he  jest  sets  about 
it.  I  think  more  of  my  terbacker  than  ony thing 
otherwise  an'  so  does  the  ole  ooman.  So  we  jist  'joys 
Ufe.' 

"  'Were  you  in  the  army?'  returned  we. 

"  'Lor',  no.  I  'joyed  life  ter  hum.  'Sides,  when  I 
did  talk  of  goin'.  Col.  Billin's  said  as  maybe  I'd  hev 
ter  fight  along  o'  niggers,  an'  I  never  could  belower 
myself  to  do  that  nohow.' 

"  'You  would  have  joined  the  Northern  Army  then 
had  it  not  been  for  the  negroes,  would  you? '  asked  we. 

"  'Not  by  a  d —  sight!  Jine  the  Yankees!' 
exclaimed  he  excitedly.  'Me!  A  Southernor,  born  in 
Marion  County,  Georgia,  and  brought  up  with  'ligious 
principles.  I  put  me  on  a  levil  with  niggers  and  Yan- 
kees, and  willin'ly  cum  ter  be  a  slave!  That's  a 
'sinuation,  sir,  ag'in  my  character.  I'd  like  ter  know 
how  in  the  devil  you  dare  cum  ter  a  gemman's  house 
and  'sinuate  ag'in  his  honor  as  a  gemmen.  I  allers 
defend  my  honor,  sar,  with  my  life;  der  you  know 
that.' 

"  'I  did  not  intend  to  offend  you,  sir,  although  I 
am  not  afraid  of  a  dozen  such  white-livered  raga- 
muffins as  you  are,'  said  we.  (A  little  brag  when 
taken  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events.) 

"This  was  too  much  for  the  whole  family,  and  with 
one  accord  they  all  arose  to  attack  us.  The  old  man 
made  for  his  gun,  which  hung  on  hooks  over  the  back 
door,  and  the  old  woman  yelling  'Oh,  you  d — d  old 
coward!'  seized  the  iron  shovel  from  the  fireplace,  and 
the  boy  rushed  up  and  began  to  kick  at  us. 

"In  such  a  predicament  we  were  a  little  puzzled 
as  to  what  to  do  next.  There  was  only  one  room  in 
the  hut,  and  the  only  way  out  was  to  pass  the  man 
with  the  gun. 


APPENDIX  389 

"  'Give  me  my  powder  and  shot,  ole  ooman/ 
shouted  the  man. 

"  'Gie  dad  is  gewin  to  salt  yer,  yer  d — d  old  white 
nigger/  shouted  the  son. 

*' Thinking  discretion  to  be,  in  this  instance,  the 
better  part  of  valor,  we  marched  by  the  old  man,  tell- 
ing him  that  he  need  not  load  that  gun  for  us;  and 
left  the  excited  chevalier's  family  all  gazing  out  of  the 
door  after  us,  and  shouting,  'You're  a  coward!  Yer 
insult  women  and  children !  yer  daresn't  fight  at  twelve 
paces,'  etc. 

''We  regarded  those  ignorant,  tobacco-worshipping 
'poor  whites'  as  little  better  than  wild  beasts,  and  felt 
easier  when  their  hut  was  out  of  sight,  as  we  should 
have  felt  had  it  been  a  tiger's  den  we  had  entered 
unarmed,  instead  of  a  human  dwelling.  Whatever 
ridicules  we  may  incur  for  permitting  the  representa- 
tive of  the  Traveller  to  be  seen  easily  defeated  we  do 
not  know;  but  we  have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that  the  retreat  was  conducted  in  a  more  masterly 
manner  than  many  retrograde  movements  of  the  war, 
for  which  the  commanding  generals  of  the  army 
claimed  high  honor." 


Ill 

''Memories'' 
By  John  Greenleaf  Whittier 

[Written  in  answer  to  a  question  by  Russell  Conwell  as  to  why  the 
Poet  had  never  married.] 

A  BEAUTIFUL  and  happy  girl, 
With  step  as  light  as  summer  air; 
Eyes  glad  with  smiles  and  brow  of  pearl 
Shadowed  by  many  a  careless  curl 
Of  unconfined  and  flowing  hair; 
A  seeming  child  in  everything, 

Save  thoughtful  brow  and  ripening  charms, 
As  Nature  wears  the  smile  of  Spring 
When  sinking  into  Summer's  arms. 

A  mind  rejoicing  in  the  light 

Which  melted  through  its  graceful  bower; 
Leaf  after  leaf,  dew-moist  and  bright, 
And  stainless  in  its  holy  white. 

Unfolding  like  a  morning  flower; 
A  heart  which  like  a  fine-toned  lute, 

With  every  breath  of  feeling  woke, 
And,  even  when  the  tongue  was  mute, 

From  eye  and  lip  in  music  spoke. 

How  thrills  once  more  the  lengthening  chain 

Of  memory  at  the  thought  of  thee! 
Old  hopes  which  long  in  dust  have  lain. 
Old  dieams  come  thronging  back  again, 
And  boyhood  lives  again  in  me; 

(390) 


APPENDIX  391 

I  feel  its  glow  upon  my  cheek, 

Its  fulness  of  the  heart  is  mine, 
As  when  I  learned  to  hear  thee  speak. 

Or  raised  my  doubtful  eye  to  thine. 

I  hear  again  thy  low  replies, 

I  feel  thy  arm  within  my  own, 
And  timidly  again  uprise 
The  fringed  lids  of  hazel  eyes. 

With  soft  brown  tresses  overblown. 
Ah!  memories  of  summer  eves. 

Of  moonlit  wave  and  willowy  way, 
Of  stars  and  flowers  and  dewy  leaves, 

And  smiles  and  tones  more  dear  than  they! 

Ere  this,  thy  quiet  eye  hath  smiled 

My  picture  of  thy  youth  to  see. 
When  half  a  woman,  half  a  child. 
Thy  very  artlessness  beguilded, 

And  folly's  self  seemed  wise  in  thee; 
I,  too,  can  smile  when  o'er  that  hour 

The  hghts  of  memory  backward  stream. 
Yet  feel  the  while  that  manhood's  power 

Is  vainer  than  my  boyhood's  dream. 

Years  have  passed  on  and  left  their  trace, 

Of  graver  care  and  deeper  thought ; 
And  unto  me,  the  calm,  cold  face 
Of  manhood,  and  to  thee,  the  grace 

Of  woman's  pensive  beauty  brought. 
More  wide,  perchance,  for  blame  than  praise. 

The  schoolboy's  humble  name  has  flown; 
Thine,  in  the  green  and  quiet  ways 

Of  unobtrusive  goodness  known. 


392  APPENDIX 

And  wider  yet  in  thought  and  deed 

Diverge  our  pathways,  one  in  youth; 
Thine  the  Genevan's  sternest  creed, 
While  answers  to  my  spirit's  need 

The  Derby  Dalesman's  simple  truth. 
For  thee  the  priestly  rite  and  prayer, 

And  holy  day  and  solemn  psalm; 
For  me  the  silent  reverence,  where 

My  brethren  gather,  slow  and  calm. 

Yet  hath  thy  spirit  left  on  me 

An  impress.     Time  has  worn  not  out, 
And  something  of  myself  in  thee, 
A  shadow  from  the  past  I  see. 

Lingering,  even  yet,  thy  way  about; 
Not  wholly  can  the  heart  unlearn 

That  lesson  of  its  better  hours, 
Nor  yet  has  Time's  dull  footstep  worn 

To  common  dust  that  path  of  flowers. 

Thus  while  at  times  before  our  eyes 

The  shadows  melt  and  fall  apart. 
And  smiling  through  them  round  us  lies 
The  warm  light  of  our  morning  skies — 

The  Indian  summer  of  the  heart! 
In  secret  sympathies  of  the  mind, 

In  founts  of  feeling  which  retain 
Their  pure,  fresh  flow,  we  yet  may  find 

Our  early  dreams  not  wholly  vain. 


IV 

Sermon  Outlines 

DOCTOR  CONWELL  never  writes  out  a  sermon 
but,  in  his  early  pastorate  in  Philadelphia,  after 
his  preaching  on  Sunday  was  over,  he  would 
sometimes  jot  down  an  outline  of  what  he  had 
said.     It  is  interesting  to  glance  over  the  framework 
of  some  of  the  sermons  that  he  delivered  when  he  first 
came  to  Philadelphia. 

March  2,  1884. 

"Believe  on  the  Lord   Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." — 

Acts  16:31. 

1. 

Belief  in  a  person  means  belief  in  his  character.  A 
captain.  A  guide.  A  father.  Belief  in  Christ's 
character. 

2. 

If  we  believe  in  a  man's  character,  we  desire  to  be 
like  him.     Napoleon.     Washington.     Parent.     Christ. 

3. 

If  we  desire  to  be  like  Him,  we  will  naturally  act 
like  Him.  Dime  novels.  Circus.  Play.  Jesse  James. 
Grant's  cigars.  Artemus  Ward.  Moody.  Loyola. 
Charles  V.     Christ. 

Reading  of  Christ's  innocence  makes  us  innocent. 
His  charity.     His  truth.     His  love.     His  self-sacrifice. 

The  influence  on  mankind  leads  them  to  sacrifice  on 
sea  or  land.  In  war.  In  hospitals.  Orphans.  Aged. 
Heathen.    Truth,    Education,    Peace,    Slaves  freed. 

(393) 


394  APPENDIX 

4. 

To  be  like  Him  is  to  be  saved:  1st,  from  sinning; 
2d,  from  pain  as  sequence  to  sin ;  3d,  from  punishment 
here ;  4th,  from  punishment  hereafter.  Sincere  amend- 
ment is  repentance. 

5. 

Necessary  that  such  example  should  be  divine. 

No  imperfections  as  we  naturally  copy  them  in  our 
heroes.     Charles  V. 

Must  be  Son  of  God,  that  highest  of  earth  (kings) 
may  look  up. 

Must  be  Son  of  God  to  enlist  highest  sympathy. 

We  honor  men  in  high  positions,  and  heed  their 
sayings. 

We  sympathize  with  them  more  and  it  makes  us 
like  them.     Garfield.     William  of  Orange.     Lincoln. 

Christ's  sufferings  we  sympathize  with  more  than 
the  thieves  or  others  crucified,  because  He  was  divinely 
pure.     Divinely  innocent.     He  was  the  Son  of  God. 

November  9,  1884. 
"Why  did  Jesus  ask  them  to  tarry?" — Luke  2I^:Ii9. 

To  whom  did  He  speak?    Feier, 
Impulsive,    quick-tempered    Christian.       Forsakes 
Jesus.     Denies  Him.     Goes  fishing  on  Sacred  day. 

Andrew. 

Business  dull.  Leaves  Jesus  to  attend  to  that. 
Less  religion  and  more  business. 

Jame^. 

Wants  others  to  do  their  duty.  Dissatisfied  with 
Jesus.     Thinks  not  of  his  own  sins. 


APPENDIX  395 

John. 

.  Wants  love.     Wants  to  be  nearest  to  Jesus.     All 
sentiment;  no  work. 

James  the  Less, 

Merchant.  Capernaum.  Slides  back  into  half 
dishonesty.  Large  figs  on  top.  Speculation.  Sharp 
in  rehgion.     Pays  as  little  as  possible  for  Jesus. 

Jude. 

Teacher.  Loves  to  discuss  with  rabbis.  Believes 
in  Jesus  and  seeks  controversy  with  unbelievers.  Talks 
familiarly  about  God  as  his  intimate  companion. 

Matthew. 

Politician.  Office-holder.  All  is  fair  in  politics. 
Party  spirit.     Excuse  to  Jesus  for  going  to  caucus. 

Philip. 

Chariot  driver.  Yearns  to  go  to  races.  At  Jericho 
amphitheater.     Wild  excitement.     Excuse  to  Jesus. 

Bartholomew. 

Loves  dinners.  Feasting.  Gay  company.  Goes 
with  crowd.     Never  with  minority. 

Thomas. 

Cold  calculator.  Conservative.  Skeptical.  Doubts 
about  miracles.  About  God.  About  Jesus.  About 
Christians. 

Simon. 

The  soldier.  Make  Christians  by  force.  Wishes 
to  be  a  soldier.     The  only  brave  life. 


396  APPENDIX 

All  Together. 

Quarrel  who  shall  be  greatest.  All  forsake  Him  and 
flee. 

The  Day  of  Pentecost. 

Peter  now  changed.  Andrew  not  so  swallowed  up  in 
business.  James  looks  in  on  himself.  John  less  senti- 
mental. James  the  Less  cheats  no  more.  Matthew 
leaves  politics.  Philip,  no  more  races.  Bartholo- 
mew, less  gay  company.  Thomas  believes.  Simon, 
braver  than  a  soldier. 

November  30,  1884. 
"Think  on  these  Things."— /fe6.  S:17. 

1. 

If  we  wish  to  be  in  love  with  anything,  we  think  on 
it.     Painting.     Mechanics.     Professions. 


We  study  models  near  our  comprehension  and  attain- 
able. Studying  too  far  ahead  or  too  high  or  too  perfect 
discourages. 

Examples:  Music,  Oratory,  Arts,  etc. 

No  man  hath  seen  God.     Why? 

It  would  dazzle,  discourage,  blast.  So  Christ  came 
to  be  the  image  for  us  of  the  Father. 

He  became  man  to  show  us  what  men  can  do. 

He  was  tempted  in  all  points  like  as  we.  Think  on 
Him. 

December  14,  1884^ 

"What  the  Good  Samaritan  did  not  do."— Luke  10:33. 

1.  Did  not  go  by. 

2.  Not  ask  creed  of  sufferer. 

3.  Did  not  refuse  to  do  a  little. 


APPENDIX  397 

4.  Did  not  abandon  him  because  the  landlord  did 
nothing. 

5.  That  behavior  established  his  creed  better  than 
argument. 

6.  Scene  at  wounded  man's  home.  Waiting  for  his 
coming. 

The  Samaritan  comes  in  with  the  news. 

The  family  (children  and  all)  off  to  Jerusalem  to 
worship. 

See  priest.     (Hate  him.) 

See  Levite.     (Hate  him.) 

Gorgeous  Temple.     Grand  theories.    But  they  ask. 

Where  is  the  Samaritan's  church?  No  matter  about 
theories;  we  will  go  to  a  cave  with  the  Samaritan.  He 
must  be  right. 

"Quench  Not  the  Spirit." 
1. 

Two  dangerous  periods:  1st,  When  newly  awakened. 
2d,  When  returning  to  first  love. 

The  barren  fields.  The  spirit  of  Spring.  The  first 
blade  and  bud,  easily  crushed.     Babe  easily  killed. 

2. 

Don^t  quench  this  first  impulse  of  life.  Indications 
of  it.  Feelings  of  different  inquirers.  Easily  quenched 
by  bad  company,  bad  books,  bad  places. 

Don't  quench  it  in  others.  The  foot  on  the  bud. 
Hand  over  babe's  mouth.  Crushing  out  budding 
Christian  life  by  ridicule,  persecution.  It  is  murder. 
The  miner's  lamp  put  out  by  others.  His  death. 
Killing  little  trees  destroys  all  its  possible  fruits. 

Don't  take  inquirers  where  they  will  be  quenched. 
Theaters,  book,  sleepy  churches.  Counterfeit 
Christians. 


398  APPENDIX 

3. 

Don't  quench  returning  life  after  backsliding.    Prodi- 
gal impulse  to  return.     The  storm  center  dispersed. 

The  signs  of  the  dying. 

Coldness.     Seeing  double.     Blind. 

Lie  down   with  snakes.     Insane  believing  wrong  is 
right. 

Conscience  disagrees  with  Bible.     Given  over  to 
hardness  of  heart. 

The  sign  of  returning  life. 

Drowning  one.     Accusation  of  Conscience. 

Longing.     Gloom. 

Quench  it  not.      Go  to  church.      The  last  throw. 
The  last  match. 

Quench  it  not  in  others.     The  keeper  of  an  insane 
friend.       Encouraging    every    gleam.       Right    mind 
showed  him  his  palace  was  a  prison.     Longing  to  go 
home.     Encouraged  by  his  attendant. 
\  At  last  He  goes  Home:  Joy  of  right  mind. 

February  21^,  188^. 
"Taking  our  friends  to  Christ."— Ma«.  17:16. 

1. 

The  Boy^s  Symptoms. 

Disobedient.    Runaway.     Play  on  dangerous  water. 
With  fire.     Profane. 

Vile  Habits. 
Drink.     Crime.     Prison. 

2. 

The  cures  tried.      Medicine.      Persuasion.      Hiring. 
Precept.     Hiding  bottle.     Whipping.     Tears. 


APPENDIX  399 

3. 

The  Father's  talk  with  the  multitude.  The  testimony 
to  Jesus'  power.  The  sick  daughter.  Crippled 
father.  The  runaway  son.  The  drunkard.  The 
bad  husband.  The  cruel  father.  The  jealous  wife. 
The  profane.     The  disobedient.     The  criminal. 

4. 

Goes  to  Disciples. 
Peter  says  whip  him.     Has  tried  it. 
Philip  says  hire  him.     Has  tried  it. 
Nathanael  says  teach  him.     Has  tried  it. 
Judas  says  let  him  go.      Has  tried  it. 
John  says  love  him.    Has  tried  it. 

Then  take  him  to  Jesus. 

The  interview.  The  father  bringing  his  son.  The 
cure.     The  return  home.     An  example  for  us. 

October  21,  1883, 

"What  is  a  Church  for?"-/  Cor.  12:8. 
1. 

Composed  of  believers.     Who  are  believers? 

2. 

Hence  is  to  assist  in  serving  man  for  that  is  serving 
God.     Church  does  this  in  two  ways. 


Helps  Christian  growth  within.  Preaching.  Sunday- 
school.  Singing.  Praying.  Sociabihty  in  gatherings, 
fairs,  etc.     Trains  prayerless,  indolent. 


400  APPENDIX 

4. 

Help  outside.  Community  safer,  happier,  less  crime, 
more  friendships.    Better  neighbors.    More  Christians. 

5. 

Helps  by  strength.  Union.  Multitude  of  Coun- 
selors. Special  receptacle  of  Spirit.  The  Spirit  is  the 
Church.     Because  He  has  given  us  of  His  Spirit. 

November  4,  1883. 

About  the  universal  sin  of  ingratitude.  But  not 
worth  writing  out.  A  deady  dead  failure  as  a  sermon. 
The  Lord  help  me  to  do  better  next  Sunday. 

These  sermons  were  wonderfully  filled  out  with 
copious  illustrations  rounded  to  a  symmetrical  whole, 
and  the  central  truth  forcefully  driven  home  at  the 
conclusion. 


Form  of  Service  Used  in  Ceremony  of 
Dedicating    Infants 

Question. — Do  you  now  come  to  the  Lord's  house  to 
present  your  child  (children)  to  the  Lord?  Answer. — 
We  do. 

Question. — Will  you  promise  before  the  Father  of  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that  you  will,  so  far  as  in  you  lieth, 
teach  this  child  the  Holy  Scriptures  and  bring  him  (her) 
up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord?  Will 
you  train  his  (her)  mind  to  respect  the  services  of 
the  Lord's  house,  and  to  live  in  compliance  with  the 
teachings  and  example  of  our  Lord?  When  he  reaches 
the  years  of  understanding,  will  you  show  hun  the 
necessity  of  repentance,  explain  to  him  the  way  of 
salvation,  and  urge  upon  him  the  necessity  of  con- 
version, baptism  and  union  with  the  visible  Church 
of  Christ?     Answer. — We  will. 

Question. — By  what  name  do  you  propose  to  register 
him  (her  or  them)  at  this  time?    Answer. — 

^  ^  ^  S|C  S)C  «|C  9|C 

Beloved:  These  parents  have  come  to  the  House  of 
God  at  this  time  to  present  this  child  (these  children) 
before  the  Lord  in  imitation  of  the  presentation  of  the 
infant  Jesus  in  the  Temple  as  recorded  by  the  Evan- 
gelist Luke,  saying,  ''When  the  days  of  her  (Mary's) 
purification  according  to  the  law  of  Moses  were  accom- 
plished, they  brought  him  to  Jerusalem  to  present  him 
to  the  Lord,  and  to  offer  sacrifice  according  to  that 
which  is  said  in  the  law  of  the  Lord,  a  pair  of  turtle 

26  (401) 


402  APPENDIX 

doves  or  two  young  pigeons."  These  parents  have 
learned  from  the  Lord  Jesus  himself  that  he  desires 
that  all  children  should  come  unto  him  that  he  might 
put  his  hands  on  them  and  pray.  Therefore,  in 
obedience  to  the  Scriptures,  the  parents  are  here  to 
present  this  child  unto  the  Lord  Jesus  in  spirit,  that 
He  may  take  him  up  in  his  arms  and  bless  him. 

We  will  turn,  therefore,  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  for 
direction,  as  they  are  our  only  rule  of  faith  and  prac- 
tice, and  ascertain  the  wishes  and  commandments  of 
the  Lord  in  this  matter: 

I  Sam,  i:  26,  27,28: 

''And  Hannah  said,  0  my  Lord,  as  thy  soul  liveth, 
my  Lord,  I  am  the  woman  that  stood  by  thee  here, 
praying  unto  the  Lord. 

''For  this  child  I  prayed;  and  the  Lord  hath  given 
me  my  petition  which  I  asked  of  him. 

"Therefore  also  I  have  lent  him  to  the  Lord;  as 
long  as  he  liveth  he  shall  be  lent  to  the  Lord.  And 
he  worshipped  the  Lord  there." 

Mark  x:  13,  I4,  15: 

"And  they  brought  young  children  to  him,  that  he 
should  touch  them;  and  his  disciples  rebuked  those 
that  brought  them. 

"But  when  Jesus  saw  it,  he  was  much  displeased, 
and  said  unto  them.  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come 
unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not;  for  of  such  is  the 
kingdom  of  God. 

"Verily  I  say  unto  you  Whosoever  shall  not  receive 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child,  he  shall  not  enter 
therein. 

"And  he  took  them  up  in  his  arms,  put  his  hands 
upon  them,  and  blessed  them." 


APPENDIX  403 

Luke  xviii:15,  16,  17: 

''And  they  brought  young  children  to  him,  that  he 
should  touch  them ;  but  when  his  disciples  saw  it,  they 
rebuked  them. 

''But  Jesus  called  them  unto  him,  and  said.  Suffer 
little  children  to  come  unto  me,  and  forbid  them  not; 
for  of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  God. 

"Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Whosoever  shall  not  receive 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  a  little  child  shall  in  no  wise 
enter  therein." 

Matt.  xmii:2-6,  14: 

"And  Jesus  called  a  little  child  unto  him,  and  set 
him  in  the  midst  of  them. 

"And  said.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  Except  ye  be 
converted  and  become  as  little  children,  ye  shall  not 
enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

"Whosoever  therefore  shall  humble  himself  as  this 
little  child,  the  same  is  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

."And  whoso  shall  receive  one  such  little  child  in  my 
name  receiveth  me. 

"But  whoso  shall  offend  one  of  these  little  ones 
which  believe  in  me,  it  were  better  for  him  that  a 
millstone  were  hanged  about  his  neck,  and  that  he  were 
drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea. 

"Even  so  it  is  not  the  will  of  your  father  which  is 
in  heaven,  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should  perish." 

Therefore,  believing  it  is  wise  and  that  it  is  a  sacred 
duty  to  dedicate  our  precious  little  ones  to  God  in  this 
solemn  manner;  believing  that  all  the  dear  children 
are  especially  loved  by  Christ;  and  that  when  taken 
from  this  world  before  active,  intentional  participation 
in  sin,  they  are  saved  by  His  merciful  grace;    and 


404  APPENDIX 

believing  that  Christ  by  His  example,  and  the  apostles 
by  their  direct  teaching,  reserve  the  sacred  ordinance 
of  baptism  for  repentant  believers,  we  will  now  unitedly 
ask  the  Lord  to  accept  the  consecration  of  this  child 
(children),  and  to  take  him  in  His  spiritual  arms  and 
bless  him. 

Prayer. 

Hymn. 

Benediction. 


VI 

Acres  of  Diamonds 

I  AM  astonished  that  so  many  people  should  care  to 
hear  this  story  over  again.  Indeed,  this  lecture 
has  become  a  study  in  psychology;  it  often  breaks 

all  rules  of  oratory,  departs  from  the  precepts  of 
rhetoric,  and  yet  remains  the  most  popular  of  any 
lecture  I  have  dehvered  in  the  fifty-seven  years  of  my 
pubhc  life.  I  have  sometimes  studied  for  a  year  upon 
a  lecture  and  made  careful  research,  and  then  presented 
the  lecture  just  once — never  delivered  it  again.  I  put 
too  much  work  on  it.  But  this  had  no  work  on  it — 
thrown  together  perfectly  at  random,  spoken  offhand 
without  any  special  preparation,  and  it  succeeds 
when  the  thing  we  study,  work  over,  adjust  to  a  plan, 
is  an  entire  failure. 

/  The  '^ Acres  of  Diamonds"  which  I  have  mentioned 
through  so  many  years  are  to  found  in  this  city, 
and  you  are  to  find  them.  Many  have  found  them. 
And  what  man  has  done,  man  can  do.  I  could  not 
find  anything  better  to  illustrate  my  thought  than  a 
story  I  have  told  over  and  over  again,  and  which  is 
now  found  in  books  in  nearly  every  library. 

In  1870  we  w^ent  down  the  Tigris  River.  We  hired 
a  guide  at  Bagdad  to  show  us  Persepolis,  Nineveh  and 
Babylon,  and  the  ancient  countries  of  Assyria  as  far  as 
the  Arabian  Gulf.  He  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
land,  but  he  was  one  of  those  guides  who  love  to  enter- 
tain their  patrons;  he  was  like  a  barber  that  tells  you 
many  stories  in  o^der  to  keep  your  mind  off  the  scratch- 
ing and  the  scraping.    He  told  me  so  many  stories  that 

(405) 


406  APPENDIX 

I  grew  tired  of  his  telling  them  and  I  refused  to  listen 
— looked  away  whenever  he  commenced;  that  made 
the  guide  quite  angry.  I  remember  that  toward 
evening  he  took  his  Turkish  cap  off  his  head  and 
swung  it  around  in  the  air.  The  gesture  I  did  not 
understand  and  I  did  not  dare  look  at  him  for  fear  I 
should  become  the  victim  of  another  story.  But, 
although  I  am  not  a  woman,  I  did  look,  and  the  instant 
I  turned  my  eyes  upon  that  worthy  guide  he  was  off 
again.  Said  he,  ^'I  will  tell  you  a  story  now  which 
I  reserve  for  my  particular  friends!"  So  then,  count- 
ing myself  a  particular  friend,  I  Hstened,  and  I  have 

^always  been  glad  I  did. 

^  He  said  there  once  lived  not  far  from  the  River 
Indus  an  ancient  Persian  by  the  name  of  Al  Hafed. 
He  said  that  Al  Hafed  owned  a  very  large  farm  with 
orchards,  grain  fields  and  gardens.  He  was  a  con- 
tented and  wealthy  man — contented  because  he  was 
wealthy,  and  wealthy  because  he  was  contented. 
One  day  there  visited  this  old  farmer  one  of  those 
ancient  Buddhist  priests,  and  he  sat  down  by  Al 
Hafed's  fire  and  told  that  old  farmer  how  this  world 
of  ours  was  made.  He  said  that  this  world  was  once  a 
mere  bank  of  fog,  which  is  scientifically  true,  and  he 
said  that  the  Almighty  thrust  his  finger  into  the  bank 
of  fog  and  then  began  slowly  to  move  his  finger  around 
and  gradually  to  increase  the  speed  of  his  finger  until 
at  last  he  whirled  that  bank  of  fog  into  a  soUd  ball  of 
fire,  and  it  went  rolling  through  the  universe,  burning 
its  way  through  other  cosmic  banks  of  fog,  until  it 
condensed  the  moisture  without,  and  fell  in  floods  of 
rain  upon  the  heated  surface  and  cooled  the  outward 
crust.  Then  the  internal  flames  burst  through  the 
cooling  crust  and  threw  up  the  mountains  and  made 
the  hills  and  the  valley  of  this  wonderful  world  of  ours. 


APPENDIX  407 

If  this  internal  melted  mass  burst  out  and  cooled  very 
quickly  it  became  granite;  that  which  cooled  less 
quickly  became  silver;  and  less  quickly,  gold;  and 
after  gold  diamonds  were  made.  Said  the  old  priest, 
"A  diamond  is  a  congealed  drop  of  sunlight." 

This  is  a  scientific  truth  also.  You  all  know  that  a 
diamond  is  pure  carbon,  actually  deposited  sunlight — 
and  he  said  another  thing  I  would  not  forget:  he 
declared  that  a  diamond  is  the  last  and  highest  of 
God's  mineral  creations,  as  a  woman  is  the  last  and 
highest  of  God's  animal  creations.  I  suppose  that  is 
the  reason  why  the  two  have  such  a  liking  for  each 
other.  And  the  old  priest  told  Al  Hafed  that  if  he 
had  a  handful  of  diamonds  he  could  purchase  a  whole 
county,  and  with  a  mine  of  diamonds  he  could  place 
his  children  upon  thrones  through  the  influence  of 
their  great  wealth.  Al  Hafed  heard  all  about  diamonds 
and  how  much  they  were  worth,  and  went  to  his  bed 
that  night  a  poor  man — not  that  he  had  lost  anything, 
but  poor  because  he  was  discontented  and  discontented 
because  he  thought  he  was  poor.  He  said:  ^'I  want  a 
mine  of  diamonds!"  So  he  lay  awake  all  night,  and 
early  in  the  morning  sought  out  the  priest.  Now  I 
know  from  experience  that  a  priest  when  awakened 
early  in  the  morning  is  cross.  He  awoke  that  priest 
out  of  his  dreams  and  said  to  him,  ''Will  you  tell  me 
where  I  can  find  diamonds?"  The  priest  said, 
''Diamonds?  What  do  you  want  with  diamonds?" 
"I  want  to  be  immensely  rich,"  said  Al  Hafed,  "but  I 
don't  know  where  to  go."  "Well,"  said  the  priest,  "if 
you  will  find  a  river  that  runs  over  white  sand  between 
high  mountains,  in  those  sands  you  will  always  see 
diamonds."  "Do  you  really  beheve  that  there  is 
such  a  river?"  "Plenty  of  them,  plenty  of  them;  all 
you  have  to  do  is  just  go  and  find  them,  then  you  have 


408  APPENDIX 

them."  Al  Hafed  said,  ''I  will  go."  So  he  sold  his 
farm,  collected  his  money  at  interest,  left  his  family  in 
charge  of  a  neighbor,  and  away  he  went  in  search  of 
diamonds.  He  began  very  properly,  to  my  mind,  at 
the  Mountains  of  the  Moon.  Afterwards  he  went 
around  into  Palestine,  then  wandered  on  into  Europe, 
and  at  last,  when  his  money  was  all  spent,  and  he  was 
in  rags,  wretchedness  and  poverty,  he  stood  on  the 
shore  of  that  bay  in  Barcelona,  Spain,  when  a  tidal 
wave  came  rolling  in  through  the  Pillars  of  Hercules 
and  the  poor,  afflicted,  suffering  man  could  not  resist 
the  awful  temptation  to  cast  himself  into  that  incom- 
ing tide,  and  he  sank  beneath  its  foaming  crest,  never 
to  rise  in  this  life  again. 
I  il?^  When  that  old  guide  had  told  me  that  very  sad 
story,  he  stopped  the  camel  I  was  riding  and  went 
back  to  fix  the  baggage  on  one  of  the  other  camels, 
and  I  remember  thinking  to  myself,  ^'Why  did  he 
reserve  that  for  his  particular  friends  f^  There  seemed 
to  be  no  beginning,  middle  or  end — nothing  to  it. 
That  was  the  first  story  I  ever  heard  told  or  read  in 
which  the  hero  was  killed  in  the  first  chapter.  I 
had  but  one  chapter  of  that  story  and  the  hero  was 
dead.  "WTien  the  guide  came  back  and  took  up  the 
halter  of  my  camel  again,  he  went  right  on  with  the 
same  story.  He  said  that  Al  Hafed's  successor  led 
his  camel  out  into  the  garden  to  drink,  and  as  that 
camel  put  its  nose  down  into  the  clear  water  of  the 
garden  brook  Al  Hafed's  successor  noticed  a  curious 
flash  of  fight  from  the  sands  of  the  shallow  stream, 
and  reaching  in  he  pulled  out  a  black  stone  having 
an  eye  of  light  that  reflected  aU  the  colors  of  the  rain- 
bow, and  he  took  that  curious  pebble  into  the  house 
and  left  it  on  the  mantel,  then  went  on  his  way  and 
forgot  aU  about  it.     A  few  days  after  that,  this  same 


APPENDIX  409 

old  priest  who  told  Al  Hafed  how  diamonds  were 
made,  came  in  to  visit  his  successor,  when  he  saw 
that  flash  of  light  from  the  mantel.  He  rushed  up 
and  said,  ''Here  is  a  diamond — here  is  a  diamond! 
Has  Al  Hafed  returned?''  ''No,  no;  Al  Hafed  has 
not  returned  and  that  is  not  a  diamond;  that  is 
nothing  but  a  stone;  we  found  it  right  out  here  in 
our  garden."  "But  I  know  a  diamond  when  I  see 
it,"  said  he;  "that  is  a  diamond!" 
/"  Then  together  they  rushed  to  the  garden  and 
stirred  up  the  white  sands  with  their  fingers  and  found 
others  more  beautiful,  more  valuable  diamonds  than 
the  first,  and  thus,  said  the  guide  to  me,  were  dis- 
covered the  diamond  mines  of  Golconda,  the  most 
magnificent  diamond  mines  in  all  the  history  of  man- 
kind, exceeding  the  Kimberley  in  its  value.  The 
great  Kohinoor  diamond  in  England's  crown  jewels 
and  the  largest  crown  diamond  on  earth  in  Russia's 
crown  jewels,  which  I  had  often  hoped  she  would 
have  to  sell  before  they  had  peace  with  Japan,  came 
from  that  mine,  and  when  the  old  guide  had  called 
my  attention  to  that  wonderful  discovery  he  took 
his  Turkish  cap  off  his  head  again  and  swung  it  around 
in  the  air  to  call  my  attention  to  the  moral.  Those 
Arab  guides  have  a  moral  to  each  story,  though  the 
stories  are  not  always  moral.  He  said  had  Al  Hafed 
remained  at  home  and  dug  in  his  own  cellar  or  in  his 
own  garden,  instead  of  wretchedness,  starvation, 
poverty  and  death  in  a  strange  land,  he  would  have 
had  "acres  of  diamonds" — for  every  acre,  yes,  every 
shovelful  of  that  old  farm  afterwards  revealed  the 
gems  which  since  have  decorated  the  crowns  of 
monarchs.  ^\Tien  he  had  given  the  moral  to  his  story, 
I  saw  why  he  had  reserved  this  story  for  his  "particular 
friends."     I  didn't  tell  him  I  could  see  it;    I  was  not 


410  APPENDIX 

going  to  tell  that  old  Arab  that  I  could  see  it.  For 
it  was  that  mean  old  Arab's  way  of  going  around  a 
thing,  like  a  lawyer,  and  saying  indirectly  what  he 
did  not  dare  say  directly,  that  there  was  a  certain 
young  man  that  day  travehng  down  the  Tigris  River 
that  might  better  be  at  home  in  America.  I  didn't 
tell  him  I  could  see  it. 

(  I  told  him  his  story  reminded  me  of  one,  and  I 
told  it  to  him  quick.  I  told  him  about  that  man  out 
in  California,  who,  in  1847,  owned  a  ranch  out  there. 
He  read  that  gold  had  been  discovered  in  Southern 
California,  and  he  sold  his  ranch  to  Colonel  Sutter 
and  started  off  to  hunt  for  gold.  Colonel  Sutter 
put  a  mill  on  the  little  stream  in  that  farm  and  one 
day  his  Uttle  girl  brought  some  wet  sand  from  the 
raceway  of  the  mill  into  the  house  and  placed  it 
before  the  fire  to  dry,  and  as  that  sand  was  falHng 
through  the  little  girl's  fingers  a  visitor  saw  the  first 
shining  scales  6f  real  gold  that  were  ever  discovered 
in  California;  and  the  man  who  wanted  the  gold 
had  sold  this  ranch  and  gone  away,  never  to  return. 
I  delivered  this  lecture  two  years  ago  in  California, 
in  the  city  that  stands  near  that  farm,  and  they  told 
me  that  the  mine  is  not  exhausted  yet,  and  that  a 
one-third  owner  of  that  farm  has  been  getting  during 
these  recent  years  twenty  dollars  of  gold  every  fifteen 
minutes  of  his  life,  sleeping  or  waking.  Why,  you 
and  I  would  enjoy  an  income  like  that! 

'\^  But  the  best  illustration  that  I  have  now  of  this 
thought  was  found  here  in  Pennsylvania.  There 
was  a  man  living  in  Pennsylvania  who  owned  a  farm 
here  and  he  did  what  I  should  do  if  I  had  a  farm  in 
Pennsylvania — he  sold  it.  But  before  he  sold  it  he 
concluded  to  secure  employment  collecting  coal  oil 
for  his   cousin   in   Canada.      They  first  discovered 


APPENDIX  411 

coal  oil  there.  So  this  farmer  in  Pennsylvania  decided 
that  he  would  apply  for  a  position  with  his  cousin 
in  Canada.  Now,  you  see,  this  farmer  was  not  alto- 
gether a  foolish  man.  He  did  not  leave  his  farm 
until  he  had  something  else  to  do.  Of  all  the  simpletons 
the  stars  shine  on  there  is  none  more  foolish  than  a 
man  who  leaves  one  job  before  he  has  obtained  another. 
And  that  has  especial  reference  to  gentlemen  of  my 
profession,  and  has  no  reference  to  a  man  seeking  a 
divorce.  So  I  say  this  old  farmer  did  not  leave  one 
job  until  he  had  obtained  another.  He  wrote  to 
Canada,  but  his  cousin  replied  that  he  could  not 
engage  him  because  he  did  not  know  anything  about 
the  oil  business.  ''Well,  then,"  said  he,  ''I  will  under- 
stand it."  So  he  set  himself  at  the  study  of  the  whole 
subject.  He  began  at  the  second  day  of  the  creation, 
he  studied  the  subject  from  the  primitive  vegetation 
to  the  coal  oil  stage,  until  he  knew  all  about  it.  Then 
he  wrote  to  his  cousin  and  said,  ''Now  I  understand 
the  oil  business."  And  his  cousin  replied  to  him, 
"All  right,  then,  come  on." 

That  man,  by  the  record  of  the  county,  sold  his 
farm  for  eight  hundred  and  thirty-three  dollars — even 
money,  "no  cents."  He  had  scarcely  gone  from  that 
farm  before  the  man  who  purchased  it  went  out  to 
arrange  for  the  watering  the  cattle  and  he  found  that 
the  previous  owner  had  arranged  the  matter  very 
nicely.  There  is  a  stream  running  down  the  hillside 
there,  and  the  previous  owner  had  gone  out  and  put 
a  plank  across  that  stream  at  an  angle,  extending 
across  the  brook  and  dow^n  edgewise  a  few  inches 
under  the  surface  of  the  water.  The  purpose  of  the 
plank  across  that  brook  was  to  throw  over  to  the 
other  bank  a  dreadful-looking  scum  through  which 
the  cattle  would  not  put  their  noses  to  drink  above 


412  APPENDIX 

the  plank,  although  they  would  drink  the  water  on 
one  side  below  it.  Thus  that  man  who  had  gone  to 
Canada  had  been  himself  damming  back  for  twenty- 
three  years  a  flow  of  coal  oil  which  the  State  Geologist 
of  Pennsylvania  declared  officially,  as  early  as  1870, 
was  then  worth  to  our  state  a  hundred  millions  of 
dollars.  The  city  of  Titusville  now  stands  on  that 
farm  and  those  Pleasantville  wells  flow  on,  and  that 
farmer  who  had  studied  all  about  the  formation  of 
oil  since  the  second  day  of  God's  creation  clear  down 
to  the  present  time,  sold  that  farm  for  $833,  no  cents — 
again  I  say,  ^^no  sense." 

But  I  need  another  illustration,  and  I  found  that 
in  Massachusetts,  and  I  am  sorry  I  did,  because 
that  is  my  old  state.  This  young  man  I  mention 
went  out  of  the  state  to  study — went  down  to  Yale 
College  and  studied  mines  and  mining.  They  paid 
him  fifteen  dollars  a  week  during  his  last  year  for 
training  students  who  were  behind  their  classes  in 
mineralogy,  out  of  hours,  of  course,  while  pursuing 
his  own  studies.  But  when  he  graduated  they  raised 
his  pay  from  fifteen  dollars  to  forty-five  dollars  and 
offered  him  a  professorship.  Then  he  went  straight 
home  to  his  mother  and  said,  ''Mother,  I  won't  work 
for  forty-five  dollars  a  week.  What  is  forty-five 
dollars  a  week  for  a  man  with  a  brain  like  mine! 
Mother,  let's  go  out  to  California  and  stake  out  gold 
claims  and  be  immensely  rich."  ''Now,"  said  his 
mother,  "it  is  just  as  well  to  be  happy  as  it  is  to  be 
rich." 
^  But  as  he  was  the  only  son  he  had  his  way — they 
always  do;  and  they  sold  out  in  Massachusetts  and 
went  to  Wisconsin,  where  he  went  into  the  employ 
of  the  Superior  Copper  Mining  Company,  and  he 
was  lost  from  sight  in  the  employ  of  that  company 


APPENDIX  413 

at  fifteen  dollars  a  week  again.  He  was  also  to  have 
an  interest  in  any  mines  that  he  should  discover  for 
that  company.  But  I  do  not  believe  that  he  has 
ever  discovered  a  mine — I  do  not  know  anything 
about  it,  but  I  do  not  believe  he  has.  I  know  he 
had  scarcely  gone  from  the  old  homestead  before  the 
farmer  who  had  bought  the  homestead  went  out  to 
dig  potatoes,  and  as  he  was  bringing  them  in  in  a 
large  basket  through  the  front  gateway,  the  ends  of 
the  stone  wall  came  so  near  together  at  the  gate 
that  the  basket  hugged  very  tight.  So  he  set  the 
basket  on  the  ground  and  pulled,  first  on  one  side 
and  then  on  the  other  side.  Our  farms  in  Massachusetts 
are  mostly  stone  walls,  and  the  farmers  have  to  be 
economical  with  their  gateways  in  order  to  have 
some  place  to  put  the  stones.  That  basket  hugged 
so  tight  there  that  as  he  was  hauling  it  through  he 
noticed  in  the  upper  stone  next  the  gate  a  block  of 
native  silver,  eight  inches  square;  and  this  professor 
of  mines  and  mining  and  mineralogy,  who  would 
not  work  for  forty-five  dollars  a  week,  when  he  sold 
that  homestead  in  Massachusetts,  sat  right  on  that 
stone  to  make  the  bargain.  He  was  brought  up  there; 
he  had  gone  back  and  forth  by  that  piece  of  silver, 
rubbed  it  with  his  sleeve,  and  it  seemed  to  say,  ''Come 
now,  now,  now,  here  is  a  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
Why  not  take  me?"  But  he  would  not  take  it.  There 
was  no  silver  in  Newburyport;  it  was  all  away  off — 
well,  I  don't  know  where;  he  didn't,  but  somewhere 
else — and  he  was  a  professor  of  mineralogy. 
M  I  do  not  know  of  anything  I  would  enjoy  better 
'than  to  take  the  whole  time  tonight  telling  of  blunders 
like  that  I  have  heard  professors  make.  Yet  I  wish 
J  knew  what  that  man  is  doing  out  there  in  Wisconsin. 
1  can  imagine  him  out  there,  as  he  sits  by  his  fireside. 


414  APPENDIX 

and  he  is  saying  to  his  friends,  ''Do  you  know  that 

man    Con  well    that    lives    in    Philadelphia?"      ''Oh, 

yes,  I  have  heard  of  him."     "And  do  you  know  that 

man  Jones  that  lives  in  that  city?"      "Yes,  I  have 

I    heard  of  him."      And  then  he  begins  to  laugh  and 

!    laugh  and  says  to  his  friends,  "They  have  done  the 

1    same  thing  I  did,  precisely."      And  that  spoils  the 

whole  joke,  because  you  and  I  have  done  it. 

Ninety   out    of   every   hundred    people   here   have 

,  made  that  mistake  this  very  day.^'   I  say  you  ought 

J  to  be  rich ;   you  have  no  right  to  be  poor.     To  live  in 

sj  Philadelphia  and  not  be  rich  is  a  misfortune,  and  it  is 

doubly  a  misfortune,   because  you  could  have  been 

rich  just  as  well  as  be  poor.     Philadelphia  furnishes 

so  many  opportunities.     You  ought  to  be  rich.     But 

persons    with    certain    religious    prejudice    will    ask, 

"How  can  you  spend  your  time  advising  the  rising 

v    generation   to   give    their    time   to   getting   money — 

dollars  and  cents — the  commercial  spirit?" 

Yet  I  must  say  that  you  ought  to  spend  time  getting 
rich.  You  and  I  know  there  are  some  things  more 
valuable  than  money;  of  course,  we  do.  Ah,  yes! 
By  a  heart  made  unspeakably  sad  by  a  grave  on 
which  the  autumn  leaves  now  fall,  I  know  there  are 
some  things  higher  and  grander  and  sublimer  than 
money.  Well  does  the  man  know,  who  has  suffered, 
that  there  are  some  things  sweeter  and  holier  and 
more  sacred  than  gold.  Nevertheless,  the  man  of 
common  sense  also  knows  that  there  is  not  any  one 
of  those  things  that  is  not  greatly  enhanced  by  the 
/  use  of  money.  Money  is  power.  Love  is  the  grandest 
thing  on  God's  earth,  but  fortunate  the  lover  who  has 
plenty  of  money.  Money  is  power;  money  has 
powers;  and  for  a  man  to  say,  "I  do  not  want  money," 
is  to  say,  "I  do  not  wish  to  do  any  good  to  my  fellow- 


APPENDIX  415 

It  is  absurd  to 
disconnect  them.  This  is  a  wonderfully  great  life, 
and  you  ought  to  spend  your  time  getting  money, 
because  of  the  power  there  is  in  money.  And  yet 
this  rehgious  prejudice  is  so  great  that  some  people 
think  it  is  a  great  honor  to  be  one  of  God's  poor. 
I  am  looking  in  the  faces  of  people  who  think  just 
that  way.  I  heard  a  man  once  say  in  a  prayer-meeting 
that  he  was  thankful  that  he  was  one  of  God's  poor, 
and  then  I  silently  wondered  what  his  wife  would 
say  to  that  speech,  as  she  took  in  washing  to  support 
the  man  while  he  sat  and  smoked  on  the  veranda. 
I  don't  want  to  see  any  more  of  that  kind  of  God's 
poor.  Now,  when  a  man  could  have  been  rich  just 
as  well,  and  he  is  now  weak  because  he  is  poor,  he 
has  done  some  great  wrong;  he  has  been  untruthful 
to  himself;  he  has  been  unkind  to  his  fellowmen. 
We  ought  to  get  rich  if  we  can  by  honorable  and 
Christian  methods,  and  these  are  the  only  methods 
that  sweep  us  quickly  toward  the  goal  of  riches. 

I  remember,  not  many  years  ago  a  young  theo- 
logical student  who  came  into  my  office  and  said  to 
me  that  he  thought  it  was  his  duty  to  come  in  and 
''labor  with  me."  I  asked  him  what  had  happened, 
and  he  said:  "I  feel  it  is  my  duty  to  come  in  and 
speak  to  you,  sir,  and  say  that  the  Holy  Scriptures 
declare  that  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil."  I  asked 
him  where  he  found  that  saying,  and  he  said  he  found 
it  in  the  Bible.  I  asked  him  whether  he  had  made 
a  new  Bible,  and  he  said,  no,  he  had  not  gotten  a 
new  Bible,  that  it  was  in  the  old  Bible.  "Well," 
I  said,  "if  it  is  in  my  Bible,  I  never  saw  it.  Will 
you  please  get  the  text-book  and  let  me  see  it?"  He 
left  the  room  and  soon  came  stalking  in  with  his 
Bible  open,  with  all  the  bigoted  pride  of  the  narrow 


v/ 


416  APPENDIX 

sectarian,  who  founds  his  creed  on  some  misinter- 
pretation of  Scripture,  and  he  puts  the  Bible  down 
on  the  table  before  me  and  fairly  squealed  into  my 
ear,  ''There  it  is.  You  can  read  it  for  yourself." 
I  said  to  him,  ''Young  man,  you  will  learn,  when  you 
get  a  little  older,  that  you  cannot  trust  another  denomi- 
nation to  read  the  Bible  for  you."  I  said,  "Now, 
you  belong  to  another  denomination.  Please  read 
it  to  me,  and  remember  that  you  are  taught  in  a 
school  where  emphasis  is  exegesis."  So  he  took  the 
Bible  and  read  it:  "The  love  of  money  is  the  root 
of  all  evil."  Then  he  had  it  right.  The  Great  Book 
has  come  back  into  the  esteem  and  love  of  the  people, 
and  into  the  respect  of  the  greatest  minds  of  earth, 
and  now  you  can  quote  it  and  rest  your  life  and  your 
death  on  it  without  more  fear.  So,  when  he  quoted 
right  from  the  Scriptures  he  quoted  the  truth.  "The 
love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all  evil."  Oh,  that  is  it. 
It  is  the  worship  of  the  means  instead  of  the  end, 
though  you  cannot  reach  the  end  without  the  means. 
When  a  man  makes  an  idol  of  the  money  instead  of 
the  purposes  for  which  it  may  be  used,  when  he 
squeezes  the  dollar  until  the  eagle  squeals,  then  it 
is  made  the  root  of  all  evil.  Iv^hink,  if  you  only  had^i 
the  money,  what  you  could  do  for  your  wife,  your|' 
child,  and  for  your  home  and  your  city.  Think; 
how  soon  you  could  endow  the  Temple  College  yonder ' 
if  you  only  had  the  money  and  the  disposition  to 
give  it;  and  yet,  my  friend,  people  say  you  and  Ij 
should  not  spend  the  time  getting  rich.  How  inconJ 
sistent  the  whole  thing  is.  ;^  We  ought  to  be  rich, 
because  money  has  power.  I  think  the  best  thing 
for  me  to  do  is  to  illustrate  this,  for  if  I  say  you  ought 
to  get  rich,  I  ought,  at  least,  to  suggest  how  it  is 
done.     We  get  a  prejudice  against  rich  men  because 


APPENDIX  417 

of  the  lies  that  are  told  about  them.  The  lies  that 
are  told  about  Mr.  Rockefeller  because  he  has  two 
hundred  million  dollars — so  many  believe  them;  yet 
how  false  is  the  representation  of  that  man  to  the 
world.  How  little  w^e  can  tell  what  is  true  nowadays 
when  newspapers  try  to  sell  their  papers  entirely  on 
some  sensation!  The  way  they  he  about  the  rich  men 
is  something  terrible,  and  I  do  not  know  that  there 
is  anything  to  illustrate  this  better  than  what  the 
newspapers  now  say  about  the  city  of  Philadelphia. 
A  young  man  came  to  me  the  other  day  and  said, 
^'If  Mr.  Rockefeller,  as  you  think,  is  a  good  man, 
why  is  it  that  everybody  says  so  much  against  him?" 
It  is  because  he  has  gotten  ahead  of  us;  that  is  the 
whole  of  it — just  gotten  ahead  of  us.  Why  is  it 
Mr.  Carnegie  is  criticised  so  sharply  by  an  envious 
world?  Because  he  has  gotten  more  than  we  have. 
If  a  man  knows  more  than  I  know,  don't  I  inchne  to 
criticise  somew^hat  his  learning?  Let  a  man  stand 
in  a  pulpit  and  preach  to  thousands,  and  if  I  have 
fifteen  people  in  my  church,  and  they're  all  asleep, 
don't  I  criticise  him?  We  always  do  that  to  the 
man  who  gets  ahead  of  us.  Why,  the  man  you  are 
criticising  has  one  hundred  millions,  and  you  have 
fifty  cents,  and  both  of  you  have  just  what  you  are 
worth.  One  of  the  richest  men  in  this  country  came 
into  my  home  and  sat  down  in  my  parlor  and  said: 
''Did  you  see  all  those  hes  about  my  family  in  the 
paper?"  ''Certainly  I  did;  I  knew  they  were  lies 
when  I  saw  them."  "Why  do  they  lie  about  me  the 
way  they  do?"  "Well,"  I  said  to  him,  "if  you  will 
give  me  your  check  for  one  hundred  millions,  I  will 
take  all  the  hes  along  with  it."  "W^ell,"  said  he, 
"I  don't  see  any  sense  in  their  thus  talking  about 
my  family   and  myself.      Conwell,   tell  me  frankly, 

27 


418  APPENDIX 

what  do  you  think  the  American  people  think  of 
me?"  ''Well,"  said  I,  ''they  think  you  are  the 
blackest-hearted  villain  that  ever  trod  the  soil!" 
''But  what  can  I  do  about  it?"  There  is  nothing  he 
can  do  about  it,  and  yet  he  is  one  of  the  sweetest 
Christian  men  I  ever  knew.  If  you  get  a  hundred 
milHons  you  will  have  the  Ues;  you  will  be  lied  about, 
and  you  can  judge  your  success  in  any  Hne  by  the 
lies  that  are  told  about  you.  I  say  that  you  ought 
to  be  rich.  "But  there  are  ever  coming  to  me  young 
men  who  say,  "I  would  like  to  go  into  business,  but 
I  cannot."  "Why  not?"  "Because  I  have  no 
capital  to  begin  on."  Capital,  capital  to  begin  on! 
What!  young  man!  Living  in  Philadelphia  and 
looking  at  this  wealthy  generation,  all  of  whom  began 
as  poor  boys,  and  you  want  capital  to  begin  on? 
It  is  fortunate  for  you  that  you  have  no  capital.  I 
am  glad  you  have  no  money.  I  pity  a  rich  man's 
son.  A  rich  man's  son  in  these  days  of  ours  occupies 
a  very  difficult  position.  They  are  to  be  pitied. 
A  rich  man's  son  cannot  know  the  very  best  things 
in  human  life.  He  cannot.  The  statistics  of 
Massachusetts  show  us  that  not  one  out  of  seventeen 
rich  men's  sons  ever  die  rich.  They  are  raised  in 
luxury,  they  die  in  poverty.  Even  if  a  rich  man's 
son  retains  his  father's  money  even  then  he  cannot 
know  the  best  things  of  life. 
\  A  young  man  in  our  college  yonder  asked  me  to 
formulate  for  him  what  I  thought  was  the  happiest 
hour  in  a  man's  history,  and  I  studied  it  long  and 
came  back  convinced  that  the  happiest  hour  that  any 
man  ever  sees  in  any  earthly  matter  is  when  a  young 
man  takes  his  bride  over  the  threshold  of  the  door, 
for  the  first  time,  of  the  house  he  himself  has  earned 
and  built,  when  he  turns  to  his  bride  and  with  an 


APPENDIX  419 

eloquence  greater  than  any  language  of  mine,  he ' 
sayeth  to  his  wife,  ''My  loved  one,  I  earned  this 
home  myself;  I  earned  it  all.  It  is  all  mine,  and  I 
divide  it  with  thee."  That  is  the  grandest  moment 
a  human  heart  may  ever  see.  But  a  rich  man's  son 
cannot  know  that.  He  goes  into  a  finer  mansion, 
it  may  be,  but  he  is  obliged  to  go  through  the  house 
and  say,  ''Mother  gave  me  this,  mother  gave  me  that, 
my  mother  gave  me  that,  my  mother  gave  me  that," 
until  his  wife  wishes  she  had  married  his  mother. 
Oh,  I  pity  a  rich  man's  son.  I  do.  Until  he  gets 
so  far  along  in  his  dudeism  that  he  gets  his  arms  up 
like  that  and  can't  get  them  down.  Didn't  you  ever 
see  any  of  them  astray  at  Atlantic  City?  I  saw  one 
of  these  scarecrow^s  once  and  I  never  tire  thinking 
about  it.  I  was  at  Niagara  Falls  lecturing,  and  after 
the  lecture  I  went  to  the  hotel,  and  when  I  went  up 
to  the  desk  there  stood  there  a  millionaire's  son  from 
New  York.  He  was  an  indescribable  specimen  of 
anthropologic  potency.  He  carried  a  gold-headed 
cane  under  his  arm — more  in  its  head  than  he  had 
in  his.  I  do  not  believe  I  could  describe  the  young 
man  if  I  should  try.  But  still  I  must  say  that  he 
wore  an  eye-glass  he  could  not  see  through;  patent 
leather  shoes  he  could  not  walk  in,  and  pants  he 
could  not  sit  down  in — dressed  like  a  grasshopper! 
Well,  this  human  cricket  came  up  to  the  clerk's  desk 
just  as  I  came  in.  He  adjusted  his  unseeing  eye- 
glass in  this  wise  and  Usped  to  the  clerk,  because 
it's  "Hinglish,  you  know,"  to  lisp:  "Thir,  thir,  will 
you  have  the  kindness  to  fuhnish  me  with  thome 
papah  and  thome  envelopehs!"  The  clerk  measured 
that  man  quick,  and  he  pulled  out  a  drawer  and 
took  some  envelopes  and  paper  and  cast  them  across 
the  counter  and   turned  away   to  his  books.      You 


420  APPENDIX 

should  have  seen  that  specimen  of  humanity  when 
the  paper  and  envelopes  came  across  the  counter — 
he  whose  wants  had  always  been  anticipated  by 
servants.  He  adjusted  his  unseeing  eye-glass  and 
he  yelled  after  that  clerk:  ''Come  back  here  thir, 
come  right  back  here.  Now,  thir,  will  you  order  a 
thervant  to  take  that  papah  and  thothe  envelopes 
and  carry  them  to  yondah  dethk."  Oh,  the  poor 
miserable,  contemptible  American  monkey!  He 
couldn't  carry  paper  and  envelopes  twenty  feet.) 
I  suppose  he  could  not  get  his  arms  down.  I  have] 
no  pity  for  such  travesties  of  human  nature.  If  you 
have  no  capital,  I  am  glad  of  it.  You  don't  need 
capital;  you  need  common  sense,  not  copper  cents. 
i|^  A.  T.  Stewart,  the  great  princely  merchant  of 
New  York,  the  richest  man  in  America  in  his  time, 
was  a  poor  boy;  he  had  a  dollar  and  a  half  and  went 
into  the  mercantile  business.  But  he  lost  eighty- 
seven  and  a  half  cents  of  his  first  dollar  and  a  half 
because  he  bought  some  needles  and  thread  and 
buttons  to  sell,  which  people  didn't  want. 

Are  you  poor?  It  is  because  you  are  not  wanted  and 
are  left  on  your  own  hands.  There  was  the  great 
lesson.  Apply  it  whichever  way  you  will  it  comes  to 
every  single  person's  life,  young  or  old.  He  did  not 
know  what  people  needed,  and  consequently  bought 
something  they  didn't  want,  and  had  the  goods  left 
on  his  hands  a  dead  loss.  A.  T.  Stewart  learned  there 
the  great  lesson  of  his  mercantile  Ufe  and  said,  ''I  will 
never  buy  anything  more  until  I  first  learn  what  the 
people  want;  then  I'll  make  the  purchase."  He  went 
around  to  the  doors  and  asked  them  what  they  did 
want,  and  when  he  found  out  what  they  wanted,  he 
invested  his  sixty-two  and  a  half  cents  and  began  to 
supply  "a  known  demand."     I  care  not  what  your 


APPENDIX  421 

profession  or  occupation  in  life  may  be;  I  care  not 
whether  you  are  a  lawyer,  a  doctor,  a  housekeeper, 
teacher  or  whatever  else,  the  principle  is  precisely  the 
same.  We  must  know  what  the  world  needs  first  and 
then  invest  ourselves  to  supply  that  need,  and  success 
is  almost  certain.  A.  T.  Stewart  went  on  until  he  was 
worth  forty  millions.  ''Well,"  you  will  say,  "a  man 
can  do  that  in  New  York,  but  cannot  do  it  here  in 
Philadelphia."  The  statistics  very  carefully  gathered 
in  New  York  in  1889  showed  one  hundred  and  seven 
millionaires  in  the  city  worth  over  ten  millions  apiece. 
It  was  remarkable  and  people  think  they  must  go 
there  to  get  rich.  Out  of  that  one  hundred  and  seven 
milUonaires  only  seven  of  them  made  their  money  in 
New  York,  and  the  others  moved  to  New  York  after 
their  fortunes  were  made,  and  sixty-seven  out  of  the 
remaining  hundred  made  their  fortunes  in  towns  of 
less  than  six  thousand  people,  and  the  richest  man  in 
the  country  at  that  time  lived  in  a  town  of  thirty-five 
hundred  inhabitants,  and  always  lived  there  and 
never  moved  away.  It  is  not  so  much  where  you  are 
as  what  you  are. '  ^ut  at  the  same  time  if  the  largeness 
of  the  city  comes  into  the  problem,  then  remember  it  is 
the  smaller  city  that  furnishes  the  great  opportunity 
to  make  the  millions  of  money.  The  best  illustration 
that  I  can  give  is  in  reference  to  John  Jacob  Astor,  who 
was  a  poor  boy  and  who  made  all  the  money  of  the 
Astor  family.  He  made  more  than  his  successors  have 
ever  earned,  and  yet  he  once  held  a  mortgage  on  a 
millinery  store  in  New  York,  and  because  the  people 
could  not  make  enough  money  to  pay  the  interest  and 
the  rent,  he  foreclosed  the  mortgage  and  took  possession 
of  the  store  and  went  into  partnership  w^ith  the  man 
who  had  failed.  He  kept  the  same  stock,  did  not  give 
them  a  dollar  of  capital,  and  he  left  them  alone  and 


422  APPENDIX 

went  out  and  sat  down  upon  a  bench  in  the  park. 
Out  there  on  that  bench  in  the  park  he  had  the  most 
important,  and,  to  my  mind,  the  pleasantest  part  of 
that  partnership  business.  He  was  watching  the 
ladies  as  they  went  by;  and  where  is  the  man  that 
wouldn't  get  rich  at  that  business?  But  when  John 
Jacob  Astor  saw  a  lady  pass,  with  her  shoulders  back 
and  her  head  up,  as  if  she  did  not  care  if  the  whole 
world  looked  on  her,  he  studied  her  bonnet;  and 
before  that  bonnet  was  out  of  sight  he  knew  the  shape 
of  the  frame  and  the  color  of  the  trimmings,  the  curl 
of  the — something  on  a  bonnet.  Sometimes  I  try  to 
describe  a  woman's  bonnet,  but  it  is  of  httle  use,  for  it 
would  be  out  of  style  tomorrow  night.  So  John 
Jacob  Astor  went  to  the  store  and  said:  *'Now,  put 
in  the  show  window  just  such  a  bonnet  as  I  describe 
to  you  because,"  said  he,  ^'I  have  just  seen  a  lady  who 
likes  just  such  a  bonnet.  Do  not  make  up  any  more 
till  I  come  back."  And  he  went  out  again  and  sat  on 
that  bench  in  the  park,  and  another  lady  of  a  different 
form  and  complexion  passed  him  with  a  bonnet  of 
different  shape  and  color,  of  course.  ^'Now,"  said  he, 
^'put  such  a  bonnet  as  that  in  the  show  window." 
He  didn't  fill  his  show  window  with  hats  and  bonnets 
which  drive  people  away  and  then  sit  in  the  back  of 
the  store  and  bawl  because  the  people  go  somewhere 
else  to  trade.  He  didn't  put  a  hat  or  bonnet  in  that 
show  window  the  Hke  of  which  he  had  not  seen  before 
it  was  made  up. 

In  our  city  especially  there  are  great  opportunities 
for  manufacturing,  and  the  time  has  come  when  the 
line  is  drawn  very  sharply  between  the  stockholders  of 
the  factory  and  their  employes.  Now,  friends,  there 
has  also  come  a  discouraging  gloom  upon  this  country 
and  the  laboring  men  are  beginning  to  feel  that  they 


APPENDIX  423 

are  being  held  down  by  a  crust  over  their  heads  through 
which  they  find  it  impossible  to  break,  and  the  aristo- 
cratic money-owner  himself  is  so  far  above  that  he  will 
never  descend  to  their  assistance.  That  is  the 
thought  that  is  in  the  minds  of  our  people.  But, 
friends,  never  in  the  history  of  our  country  was  there 
an  opportunity  so  great  for  the  poor  man  to  get  rich 
as  there  is  now  and  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia.  The 
very  fact  that  they  get  discouraged  is  what  prevents 
them  from  getting  rich.  That  is  all  there  is  to  it.  The 
road  is  open,  and  let  us  keep  it  open  between  the  poor 
and  the  rich.  I  know  that  the  labor  unions  have  two 
great  problems  to  contend  with,  and  there  is  only  one 
way  to  solve  them.  The  labor  unions  are  doing  as 
much  to  prevent  its  solving  as  are  the  capitalists  today, 
and  there  are  positively  two  sides  to  it.  The  labor 
union  has  two  difficulties;  the  first  one  is  that  it  began 
to  make  a  labor  scale  for  all  classes  on  a  par,  and  they 
scale  down  a  man  that  can  earn  five  dollars  a"  day  to 
two  and  a  half  a  day,  in  order  to  level  up  to  him  an 
imbecile  that  cannot  earn  fifty  cents  a  day.  That  is 
one  of  the  most  dangerous  and  discouraging  things  for 
the  working  man.  He  cannot  get  the  results  of  his 
work  if  he  do  better  work  or  higher  work  or  work 
longer;  that  is  a  dangerous  thing,  and  in  order  to  get 
every  laboring  man  free  and  every  American  equal  to 
every  other  American,  let  the  laboring  man  ask  what 
he  is  worth  and  get  it — not  let  any  capitalist  say  to 
him:  ^' You  shall  work  for  me  for  half  of  what  you  are 
worth;  nor  let  any  labor  organization  say:  ''You 
shall  work  for  the  capitahst  for  half  your  worth." 
Be  a  man,  be  independent,  and  then  shall  the  laboring 
man  find  the  road  ever  open  from  poverty  to  wealth. 
The  other  difficulty  that  the  labor  union  has  to  con- 
sider, and  this  problem  they  have  to  solve  themselves, 


424  APPENDIX 

is  the  kind  of  orators  who  come  and  talk  to  them 
about  the  oppressive  rich.  I  can  in  my  dreams  recite 
the  oration  I  have  heard  again  and  again  under  such 
circumstances.  My  Hfe  has  been  with  the  laboring 
man.  I  am  a  laboring  man  myself.  I  have  often,  in 
their  assemblies,  heard  the  speech  of  the  man  who  has 
been  invited  to  address  the  labor  union.  The  man 
gets  up  before  the  assembled  company  of  honest 
laboring  men  and  he  begins  by  saying:  '^Oh,  ye  honest, 
industrious  laboring  men,  who  have  furnished  all  the 
capital  of  the  world,  who  have  built  all  the  palaces  and 
constructed  all  the  railroads  and  covered  the  ocean 
with  her  steamships.  Oh,  you  laboring  men!  You 
are  nothing  but  slaves;  you  are  ground  down  in  the 
dust  by  the  capitaUst  who  is  gloating  over  you  as  he 
enjoys  his  beautiful  estates  and  as  he  has  his  banks 
filled  with  gold,  and  every  dollar  he  owns  is  coined  out 
of  the  heart's  blood  of  the  honest  laboring  man." 
Now,  that  is  a  lie,  and  you  know  it  is  a  he;  and  yet 
that  is  the  kind  of  speech  that  they  are  all  the  time 
hearing,  representing  the  capitalists  as  wicked  and  the 
laboring  men  so  enslaved.  Why,  how  wrong  it  is! 
Let  the  man  who  loves  his  flag  and  beheves  in 
American  principles  endeavor  with  all  his  soul  to  bring 
the  capitalist  and  the  laboring  man  together  until 
they  stand  side  by  side,  and  arm  in  arm,  and  work  for 
the  common  good  of  humanity. 

He  is  an  enemy  to  his  country  who  sets  capital 
against  labor  or  labor  against  capital. 
\^^I  Suppose  I  were  to  go  down  through  this  audience 
and  ask  you  to  introduce  me  to  the  great  inventors 
who  live  here  in  Philadelphia.  "The  inventors  of 
Philadelphia,"  you  would  say,  ''Why  we  don't  have 
any  in  Philadelphia.  It  is  too  slow  to  invent  any- 
thing."   But  you  do  have  just  as  great  inventors,  and 


APPENDIX  425 

they  are  here  in  this  audience,  as  ever  invented  a 
machine.  But  the  probability  is  that  the  greatest 
inventor  to  benefit  the  world  with  his  discovery  is 
some  person,  perhaps  some  lady,  who  thinks  she  could 
not  invent  anything.  Did  you  ever  study  the  history 
of  invention  and  see  how  strange  it  was  that  the  man 
who  made  the  greatest  discovery  did  it  without  any 
previous  idea  that  he  was  an  inventor?  Who  are  the 
great  inventors?  They  are  persons  with  plain,  straight- 
forward common  sense,  who  saw  a  need  in  the  world 
and  immediately  applied  themselves  to  supply  that 
need.  If  you  want  to  invent  anything,  don't  try  to 
find  it  in  the  wheels  in  your  head  nor  the  wheels  in 
your  machine,  but  first  find  out  what  the  people  need, 
and  then  apply  yourself  to  that  need,  and  this  leads 
to  invention  on  the  part  of  people  you  would  not 
dream  of  before.  The  great  inventors  are  simply 
great  men;  the  greater  the  man  the  more  simple  the 
man;  and  the  more  simple  a  machine,  the  more 
valuable  it  is.  Did  you  ever  know  a  really  great  man? 
His  ways  are  so  simple,  so  common,  so  plain,  that  you 
think  any  one  could  do  what  he  is  doing.  So  it  is  with 
the  great  men  the  world  over.  If  you  know  a  really 
great  man,  a  neighbor  of  yours,  you  can  go  right  up 
to  him  and  say,  ''How  are  you,  Jim,  good  morning, 
Sam."  Of  course  you  can,  for  they  are  always  so 
simple. 

When  I  wrote  the  life  of  General  Garfield,  one  of  his 
neighbors  took  me  to  his  back  door,  and  shouted,  ''Jim, 
Jim,  Jim!"  and  very  soon  "Jim"  came  to  the  door 
and  General  Garfield  let  me  in — one  of  the  grandest 
men  of  our  century.  The  great  men  of  the  world  arc 
ever  so.  I  was  down  in  Virginia  and  went  up  to  an 
educational  institution  and  was  directed  to  a  man  who 
was  setting  out  a  tree.     I  approached  him  and  said. 


426  ,.  APPENDIX 

''Do  you  think  it  would  be  possible  for  me  to  see 
General  Robert  E.  Lee,  the  President  of  the  Univer- 
sity?'' He  said,  ''Sir,  I  am  General  Lee."  Of  course, 
when  you  meet  such  a  man,  so  noble  a  man  as  that, 
you  will  find  him  a  simple,  plain  man.  Greatness  is 
always  just  so  modest  and  great  inventions  are  simple. 
I  asked  a  class  in  school  once  who  were  the  great 
inventors,  and  a  little  girl  popped  up  and  said 
"Columbus."  Well,  now,  she  was  not  so  far  wrong. 
Columbus  bought  a  farm  and  he  carried  on  that  farm 
just  as  I  carried  on  my  father's  farm.  He  took  a  hoe 
and  went  out  and  sat  down  on  a  rock.  But  Columbus, 
as  he  sat  upon  that  shore  and  looked  out  upon  the 
ocean,  noticed  that  the  ships,  as  they  sailed  away, 
sank  deeper  into  the  sea  the  farther  they  went.  And 
since  that  time  some  other  "Spanish  ships"  have 
sunk  into  the  sea.  But  as  Columbus  noticed  that  the 
tops  of  the  masts  dropped  down  out  of  sight,  he  said: 
"That  is  the  way  it  is  with  this  hoe  handle;  if  you 
go  around  this  hoe  handle,  the  farther  off  you  go  the 
farther  down  you  go.  I  can  sail  around  to  the  East 
Indies."  How  plain  it  all  was.  How  simple  the 
mind — majestic  like  the  simplicity  of  a  mountain  in 
its  greatness.  Who  are  the  great  inventors?  They 
are  ever  the  simple,  plain,  everyday  people  who  see 
the  need  and  set  about  to  supply  it. 

I  was  once  lecturing  in  North  Carolina,  and  the 

,  cashier  of  the  bank  sat  directly  behind  a  lady  who 

(wore  a  very  large  hat.  I  said  to  that  audience,  "Your 
wealth  is  too  near  to  you ;  you  are  looking  right  over 
it."      He  whispered  to  his  friend,   "Well,   then,  my 

1  wealth  is  in  that  hat."  A  little  later,  as  he  wrote  me, 
I  said,  "Wherever  there  is  a  human  need  there  is  a 
greater  fortune  than  a  mine  can  furnish."     He  caught 

\my  thought,  and  he  drew  up  his  plan  for  a  better  hat 


APPENDIX  427 

pin  than  was  in  the  hat  before  him  and  the  pin  is  now 
being  manufactured.  He  was  offered  fifty-two  thou- 
sand dollars  for  his  patent.  That  man  made  his 
fortune  before  he  got  out  of  that  hall.  This  is  the 
whole  question:  Do  you  see  a  need? 
0-  I  remember  well  a  man  up  in  my  native  hills,  a  poor 
"man,  who  for  twenty  years  was  helped  by  the  town  in 
his  poverty,  who  owned  a  wide-spreading  maple  tree 
that  covered  the  poor  man's  cottage  like  a  benediction 
from  on  high.  I  remember  that  tree,  for  in  the  spring 
— there  were  some  roguish  boys  around  that  neighbor- 
hood when  I  was  young — in  the  spring  of  the  year  the 
man  would  put  a  bucket  there  and  the  spouts  to  catch 
the  maple  sap,  and  I  remember  where  that  bucket 
was;  and  when  I  was  young  the  boys  were,  oh,  so 
mean,  that  they  went  to  that  tree  before  that  man 
had  gotten  out  of  bed  in  the  morning,  and  after  he 
had  gone  to  bed  at  night,  and  drank  up  that  sweet  sap. 
I  could  swear  they  did  it.  He  didn't  make  a  great 
deal  of  maple  sugar  from  that  tree.  But  one  day 
he  made  the  sugar  so  white  and  crystalline  that  the 
visitor  did  not  believe  it  was  maple  sugar;  thought 
maple  sugar  must  be  red  or  black.  He  said  to  the 
old  man:  ''Why  don't  you  make  it  that  way  and 
sell  it  for  confectionery?"  The  old  man  caught  his 
thought  and  invented  the  ''rock  maple  crystal,"  and 
before  that  patent  expired  he  had  ninety  thousand 
dollars  and  had  built  a  beautiful  palace  on  the  site  of 
that  tree.  After  forty  years  owning  that ,  tree  he 
awoke  to  find  it  had  fortunes  of  money  indeed  in  it. 
And  many  of  us  are  right  by  the  tree  that  has  a  fortune 
for  us,  and  we  own  it,  possess  it,  do  what  we  will 
with  it,  but  we  do  not  learn  its  value  because  we  do 
not  see  the  human  need,  and  in  these  discoveries  and 
inventions  this  is  one  of  the  most  romantic  things 
of  Ufe. 


428  APPENDIX 

I  have  received  letters  from  all  over  the  country  and 
from  England,  where  I  have  lectured,  saying  that 
they  have  discovered  this  and  that,  and  one  man  out 
in  Ohio  took  me  through  his  great  factories  last  spring, 
and  said  that  they  cost  him  S680,000,  and,  said  he, 
''I  was  not  worth  a  cent  in  the  world  when  I  heard 
your  lecture  ^ Acres  of  Diamonds;'  but  I  made  up  my 
mind  to  stop  right  here  and  make  my  fortune  here, 
and  here  it  is/'  He  showed  me  through  his  unmort- 
gaged possessions.  And  this  is  a  continual  experience 
now  as  I  travel  through  the  country,  after  these  many 
years.  I  mention  this  incident,  not  to  boast,  but  to 
show  you  that  you  can  do  the  same  if  you  will. 

Who  are  the  great  inventors?  I  remember  a  good 
illustration  in  a  man  who  used  to  live  in  East  Brook- 
field,  Mass.  He  was  a  shoemaker,  and  he  was  out  of 
work  and  he  sat  around  the  house  until  his  wife  told 
him  *Ho  go  out  doors."  And  he  did  what  every  hus- 
band is  compelled  by  law  to  do — he  obeyed  his  wife. 
And  he  went  out  and  sat  down  on  an  ash  barrel  in  his 
back  yard.  Think  of  it!  Stranded  on  an  ash  barrel 
and  the  enemy  in  possession  of  the  house!  As  he  sat 
on  that  ash  barrel,  he  looked  down  into  that  Httle 
brook  which  ran  through  that  back  yard  into  the 
meadows,  and  he  saw  a  little  trout  go  flashing  up  the 
stream  and  hiding  under  the  bank.  I  do  not  suppose 
he  thought  of  Tennyson's  beautiful  poem: 

"Chatter,  chatter,  as  I  flow, 
To  join  the  brimming  river, 
Men  may  come,  and  men  may  go, 
But  I  go  on  forever." 

But  as  this  man  looked  into  the  brook,  he  leaped  off 
that  ash  barrel  and  managed  to  catch  the  trout  with 
his  fingers,  and  sent  it  to  Worcester.  They  wrote 
back  that  they  would  give  him  a  five  dollar  bill  for 


e^o 


APPENDIX  429 

another  such  trout  as  that,  not  that  it  was  worth  that 
much,  but  he  wished  to  help  the  poor  man.  So  this 
shoemaker  and  his  wife,  now  perfectly  united,  that 
five  dollar  bill  in  prospect,  went  out  to  get  another 
trout.  They  went  up  the  stream  to  its  source  and 
down  to  the  brimming  river,  but  not  another  trout 
could  they  find  in  the  whole  stream ;  and  so  they  came 
home  disconsolate  and  went  to  the  minister.  The 
minister  didn't  know  how  trout  grew,  but  he  pointed 
the  way.  Said  he,  ''Get  Seth  Green's  book,  and  that 
will  give  you  the  information  you  want."  They  did 
so,  and  found  all  about  the  culture  of  trout.  They 
found  that  a  trout  lays  thirty-six  hundred  eggs  every 
year  and  every  trout  gains  a  quarter  of  a  pound  every 
year,  so  that  in  four  years  a  little  trout  will  furnish 
four  tons  per  annum  to  sell  to  the  market  at  fifty 
cents  a  pound.  When  they  found  that,  they  said  they 
didn't  believe  any  such  story  as  that,  but  if  they 
could  get  five  dollars  a  piece  they  could  make  some- 
thing. And  right  in  that  same  back  yard  with  the 
coal  sifter  up  stream  and  window  screen  down  the 
stream,  they  began  the  culture  of  trout.  They  after- 
wards moved  to  the  Hudson,  and  since  then  he  has 
become  the  authority  in  the  United  States  upon  the 
raising  of  fish,  and  he  has  been  next  to  the  highest  on 
the  United  States  Fish  Commission  in  Washington. 
My  lesson  is  that  man's  wealth  was  out  here  in  his 
back  yard  for  twenty  years,  but  he  didn't  see  it  until 
his  wife  drove  him  out  with  a  mop  stick. 

I  remember  meeting  personally  a  poor  carpenter  of 
Hingham,  Massachusetts,  who  was  out  of  work  and  in 
poverty.  His  wife  also  drove  him  out  of  doors.  He 
sat  down  on  the  shore  and  whittled  a  soaked  shingle 
into  a  wooden  chain.  His  children  quarreled  over  it  in 
the  evening,  and  while  he  was  whittling  a  second  one, 


430  APPENDIX 

a  neighbor  came  along  and  said,  ^'Why  don't  you 
whittle  toys  if  you  can  carve  like  that?"  He  said, 
''I  don't  know  what  to  make!"  There  is  the  whole 
thing.  His  neighbor  said  to  him:  ''Why  don't  you 
ask  your  own  children?"  Said  he,  '^What  is  the  use 
of  doing  that?  My  children  are  different  from  other 
people's  children."  I  used  to  see  people  like  that 
when  I  taught  school.  The  next  morning  when  his 
boy  came  down  the  stairway,  he  said,  ''Sam,  what 
do  you  want  for  a  toy?'  ''I  want  a  wheel-barrow." 
When  his  Httle  girl  came  down,  he  asked  her  what  she 
wanted,  and  she  said.  ''  I  want  a  little  doll's  wash- 
stand,  a  httle  doll's  carriage,  a  little  doll's  umbrella," 
and  went  on  with  a  whole  lot  of  things  that  would 
have  taken  his  lifetime  to  supply.  He  consulted  his 
own  children  right  there  in  his  own  house  and  began 
to  whittle  out  toys  to  please  them.  He  began  with 
his  jack-knife,  and  made  those  unpainted  Hingham 
toys.  He  is  the  richest  man  in  the  entire  New  England 
States,  if  Mr.  Lawson  is  to  be  trusted  in  his  statement 
concerning  such  things,  and  yet  that  man's  fortune 
was  made  by  consulting  his  own  children  in  his  own 
house.  You  don't  need  to  go  out  of  your  own  house 
to  find  out  what  to  invent  or  what  to  make.  I  always 
.talk  too  long  on  this  subject. 
kv  I  would  like  to  meet  the  great  men  who  are  here 
tonight.  The  great  men!  We  don't  have  any  great 
men  in  Philadelphia.  Great  men!  You  say  that 
they  all  come  from  London,  or  San  Francisco,  or  Rome, 
or  Manayunk,  or  anywhere  else  but  there — anywhere 
else  but  Philadelphia — and  yet,  in  fact,  there  are  just 
as  great  men  in  Philadelphia  as  in  any  cit}^  of  its  size. 
There  are  great  men  and  women  in  this  audience. 
Great  men,  I  have  said,  are  very  simple  men.  Just  as 
many  great  men  here  as  are  to  be  found  anyr^^here. 


APPENDIX  431 

The  greatest  error  in  judging  great  men  is  that  we 
think  that  they  always  hold  an  office.  The  world 
knows  nothing  of  its  greatest  men.  Who  are  the 
great  men  of  the  world?  The  young  man  and  young 
woman  may  well  ask  the  question.  It  is  not  necessary 
that  they  should  hold  an  office,  and  yet  that  is  the 
popular  idea.  That  is  the  idea  we  teach  now  in  our 
high  schools  and  common  schools,  that  the  great  men 
of  the  world  are  those  who  hold  some  high  office,  and 
unless  we  change  that  very  soon  and  do  away  with  that 
prejudice,  we  are  going  to  change  to  an  empire.  There 
is  no  question  about  it.  We  must  teach  that  m.en  are 
great  only  on  their  intrinsic  value,  and  not  on  the 
position  that  they  may  incidentally  happen  to  occupy. 
And  yet,  don't  blame  the  young  men  saying  that  they 
are  going  to  be  great  when  they  get  into  some  official 
position.  I  ask  this  audience  again  who  of  you  are 
going  to  be  great?  Says  a  young  man:  "I  am  going 
to  be  great."  ''\\Tien  are  you  going  to  be  great?" 
^^When  I  am  elected  to  some  political  office.";  Won't 
you  learn  the  lesson,  young  man ;  that  it  is  'prima  facie 
evidence  of  littleness  to  hold  public  office  under  our 
form  of  government?  Think  of  it.  This  is  a  govern- 
ment of  the  people,  and  by  the  people,  and  for  the 
people,  and  not  for  the  office-holder,  and  if  the  people 
in  this  country  rule  as  they  always  should  rule,  an 
officeholder  is  only  the  servant  of  the  people,  and  the 
Bible  says  that  ^'the  servant  cannot  be  greater  than 
his  master."  The  Bible  says  that  ''he  that  is  sent 
cannot  be  greater  than  him  who  sent  him."  In  this 
country  the  people  are  the  masters,  and  the  office- 
holders can  never  be  greater  than  the  people;  they 
should  be  honest  servants  of  the  people,  but  they  are 
not  our  greatest  men.  Young  man,  remember  that 
you  never  heard  of  a  great  man  holding  any  pohtical 


c^ 


432  APPENDIX 

office  in  this  country  unless  he  took  that  office  a^  an 
expense  to  himself.  It  is  a  loss  to  every  great  man  to 
take  a  public  office  in  our  country.  Bear  this  in  mind, 
young  man,  that  you  cannot  be  made  great  by  a 
political  election. 

Another  young  man  says,  ^'I  am  going  to  be  a  great 
man  in  Philadelphia  some  time.'^  ''Is  that  so?  When 
are  you  going  to  be  great?''  ''When  there  comes 
another  war!  When  we  get  into  difficulty  with  Mexico, 
or  England,  or  Eussia,  or  Japan,  or  with  Spain  again 
over  Cuba,  or  with  New  Jersey,  I  will  march  up  to 
the  cannon's  mouth,  and  amid  the  glistening  bayonets 
I  will  tear  down  their  flag  from  its  staff,  and  I  will 
come  home  with  stars  on  my  shoulders,  and  hold  every 
office  in  the  gift  of  the  government,  and  I  will  be 
great."  "No,  you  won't!  No,  you  won't;  that  is 
no  evidence  of  true  greatness,  young  man."  But 
don't  blame  that  young  man  for  thinking  that  way; 
that  is  the  way  he  is  taught  in  the  high  school.  That 
is  the  way  history  is  taught  in  college.  He  is  taught 
that  the  men  who  held  the  office  did  all  the  fighting. 

I  remember  we  had  a  Peace  Jubilee  here  in  Phila- 
delphia soon  after  the  Spanish  war.  Perhaps  some 
of  these  visitors  think  we  should  not  have  had  it  until 
now  in  Philadelphia,  and  as  the  great  procession  was 
going  up  Broad  street  I  was  told  that  the  tally-ho 
coach  stopped  right  in  front  of  my  house,  and  on  the 
coach  was  Hobson,  and  all  the  people  threw  up  their 
hats  and  swung  their  handkerchiefs,  and  shouted 
"Hurrah  for  Hobson!"  I  would  have  yelled  too, 
because  he  deserves  much  more  of  his  country  than 
he  has  ever  received.  But  suppose  I  go  into  the 
high  school  tomorrow  and  ask,  "Boys,  who  sunk  the 
Merrimac?"  If  they  answer  me  "Hobson,"  they 
tell  me  seven-eighths  of  a  he — seven-eighths  of  a  lie, 


APPENDIX  433 

because  there  were  eight  men  who  sunk  the  Merrimac. 
The  other  seven  men,  by  virtue  of  their  position, 
were  continually  exposed  to  the  Spanish  fire,  while 
Hobson,  as  an  officer,  might  reasonably  be  behind  the 
smoke-stack.  Why,  my  friends,  in  this  intelligent 
audience  gathered  here  tonight  I  do  not  believe  I 
could  find  a  single  person  that  can  name  the  other 
seven  men  who  were  with  Hobson.  Why  do  we 
teach  history  in  that  way?  We  ought  to  teach  that 
however  humble  the  station  a  man  may  occupy,  if 
he  does  his  full  duty  in  his  place,  he  is  just  as  much 
entitled  to  the  American  people's  honor  as  is  a  king 
upon  a  throne.  We  do  teach  it  as  a  mother  did  her 
little  boy  in  New  York  when  he  said,  ^' Mamma, 
what  great  building  is  that?"  "That  is  General 
Grant's  tomb."  ''Who  was  General  Grant?"  ''He 
was  the  man  who  put  down  the  rebellion."  Is  that 
the  way  to  teach  history? 

Do  you  think  we  would  have  gained  a  victory  if 
it  had  depended  on  General  Grant  alone?  Oh,  no. 
Then  why  is  there  a  tomb  on  the  Hudson  at  all? 
Why,  not  simply  because  General  Grant  was  personally 
a  great  man  himself,  but  that  tomb  is  there  because 
he  was  a  representative  man  and  represented  two 
hundred  thousand  men  who  went  down  to  death 
for  their  nation  and  many  of  them  as  great  as  General 
Grant.  That  is  why  that  beautiful  tomb  stands 
on  the  heights  over  the  Hudson. 

I  remember  an  incident  that  will  illustrate  this, 
the  only  one  that  I  can  give  tonight.  I  am  ashamed 
of  it,  but  I  don't  dare  leave  it  out.  I  close  my  eyes 
now;  I  look  back  through  the  years  to  1863;  I  can 
see  my  native  town  in  the  Berkshire  Hills,  I  can  see 
that  cattle-show  ground  filled  with  people;  I  can 
see  the  church  there  and  the  town  hall  crowded,  and 

28 


434  APPENDIX 

hear  bands  playing,  and  see  flags  flying  and  handker- 
chiefs streaming — well  do  I  recall  at  this  moment 
that  day.  The  people  had  turned  out  to  receive 
a  company  of  soldiers,  and  that  company  came  march- 
ing up  on  the  Common.  They  had  served  out  one 
term  in  the  Civil  War  and  had  re-enhsted,  and  they 
were  being  received  by  their  native  townsmen.  I 
was  but  a  boy,  but  I  was  captain  of  that  company, 
puffed  out  with  pride  on  that  day — ^why,  a  cambric 
needle  would  have  burst  me  all  to  pieces.  As  I 
marched  on  the  Common  at  the  head  of  my  company, 
there  was  not  a  man  more  proud  than  I.  We  marched 
into  the  town  hall  and  then  they  seated  my  soldiers 
down  in  the  center  of  the  house  and  I  took  my  place 
down  on  the  front  seat,  and  then  the  town  officers 
filed  through  the  great  throng  of  people,  who  stood 
close  and  packed  in  that  little  hall.  They  came  up 
on  the  platform,  formed  a  half  circle  around  it,  and 
the  mayor  of  the  town,  the  ''chairman  of  the  select- 
men" in  New  England,  took  his  seat  in  the  middle 
of  that  half  circle.  He  was  an  old  man,  his  hair  was 
gray;  he  never  held  an  office  before  in  his  fife.  He 
thought  that  an  office  was  all  he  needed  to  be  a  truly 
great  man,  and  when  he  came  up  he  adjusted  his 
powerful  spectacles  and  glanced  calmly  around  the 
audience  with  amazing  dignity.  Suddenly  his  eyes 
fell  upon  me,  and  then  the  good  old  man  came  right 
forward  and  invited  me  to  come  up  on  the  stand 
with  the  town  officers.  Invited  me  up  on  the  stand! 
No  town  ofliicer  ever  took  notice  of  me  before  I  went 
to  war.  Now,  I  should  not  say  that.  One  town 
officer  was  there  who  advised  the  teacher  to  "whale" 
me,  but  I  mean  no  ''honorable  mention."  So  I  was 
invited  up  on  the  stand  with  the  town  officers.  I 
took  my  seat  and  let  my  sword  fall  on  the  floor,  and 


APPENDIX  435 

folded  my  arms  across  my  breast  and  waited  to  be 
received.  Napoleon  the  Fifth!  Pride  goeth  before 
destruction  and  a  fall.  -  '  When  I  had  gotten  my  seat 
and  all  became  silent  through  the  hall,  the  chairman 
of  the  selectmen  arose  and  came  forward  with  great 
dignity  to  the  table,  and  we  all  supposed  he  would 
introduce  the  Congregational  minister,  who  was  the 
only  orator  in  the  town,  and  who  would  give  the 
oration  to  the  returning  soldiers.  But,  friends,  you 
should  have  seen  the  surprise  that  ran  over  that 
audience  when  they  discovered  that  this  old  farmer 
was  going  to  dehver  that  oration  himself.  He  had 
never  made  a  speech  in  his  life  before,  but  he  fell 
into  the  same  error  that  others  have  fallen  into,  he 
seemed  to  think  that  the  office  would  make  him  an 
orator.  So  he  had  WTitten  out  a  speech  and  walked 
up  and  down  the  pasture  until  he  had  learned  it  by 
heart  and  frightened  the  cattle,  and  he  brought  that 
manuscript  with  him,  and,  taking  it  from  his  pocket, 
he  spread  it  carefully  upon  the  table.  Then  he 
adjusted  his  spectacles  to  be  sure  that  he  might  see 
it,  and  walked  far  back  on  the  platform  and  then 
stepped  forward  like  this.  He  must  have  studied  the 
subject  much,  for  he  assumed  an  elocutionary  attitude; 
he  rested  heavily  upon  his  left  heel,  slightly  advanced 
the  right  foot,  threw  back  his  shoulders,  opened  the 
organs  of  speech,  and  advanced  his  right  hand  at  an 
angle  of  forty-five.  As  he  stood  in  that  elocutionary 
attitude  this  is  just  the  way  that  speech  went,  this  is 
it  precisely.  Some  of  my  friends  have  asked  me  if 
I  do  not  exaggerate  it,  but  I  could  not  exaggerate  it. 
Impossible!  This  is  the  way  it  went;  although  I 
am  not  here  for  the  story  but  the  lesson  that  is  back 
of  it: 

''Fellow  citizens."     As  soon  as  he  heard  his  voice, 


436  APPENDIX 

his  hand  began  to  shake  Uke  that,  his  knees  began  to 
tremble,  and  then  he  shook  all  over.  He  coughed  and 
choked  and  finally  came  around  to  look  at  his  manu- 
script. Then  he  began  again:  ''Fellow  citizens:  We 
— are — we  are — we  are — we  are —  We  are  very  happy 
— we  are  very  happy — we  are  very  happy — to  welcome 
back  to  their  native  town  these  soldiers  who  have 
fought  and  bled — and  come  back  again  to  their  native 
town.  We  are  especially — ^we  are  especially — ^we  are 
especially — we  are  especially  pleased  to  see  with  us 
today  this  young  hero  (that  meant  me) — this  young 
hero  who  in  imagination  (friends,  remember,  he  said 
'imagination,'  for  if  he  had  not  said  that,  I  would 
not  be  egotistical  enough  to  refer  to  it) — this  young 
hero  who,  in  imagination,  we  have  seen  leading  his 
troops — leading — we  have  seen  leading — we  have  seen 
leading  his  troops  on  to  the  deadly  breach.  We  have 
seen  his  shining — his  shining^ — we  have  seen  his  shining 
— we  have  seen  his  shining — his  shining  sword — 
flashing  in  the  sunlight  as  he  shouted  to  his  troops, 
'Come  on!''' 

Oh,  dear,  dear,  dear,  dear!  How  Httle  that  good, 
old  man  knew  about  war.  If  he  had  known  any- 
thing about  war,  he  ought  to  have  known  what  any 
soldier  in  this  audience  knows  is  true,  that  it  is  next 
to  a  crime  for  an  officer  of  infantry  ever  in  time  of 
danger  to  go  ahead  of  his  men.  I,  with  my  shining 
sword  flashing  in  the  sunlight,  shouting  to  my  troops: 
"Come  on."  I  never  did  it.  Do  you  suppose  I  would 
go  ahead  of  my  men  to  be  shot  in  the  front  by  the 
enemy  and  in  the  back  by  my  own  men?  That  is 
no  place  for  an  officer.  The  place  for  the  officer  is 
behind  the  private  soldier  in  actual  fighting.  How 
often,  as  a  staff  officer,  I  rode  down  the  line  when 
the  rebel  cry  and  yell  was  coming  out  of  the  woods, 


APPENDIX  437 

sweeping  along  over  the  fields,  and  shouted,  "Officers 
to  the  rear!  Officers  to  the  rear!"  and  then  every 
officer  goes  behind  the  line  of  battle,  and  the  higher 
the  officer's  rank,  the  farther  behind  he  goes.  Not 
because  he  is  any  the  less  brave,  but  because  the 
laws  of  war  require  that  to  be  done.  If  the  general 
came  up  on  the  front  line  and  were  killed  you  would 
lose  your  battle  anyhow,  because  he  has  the  plan  of 
the  battle  in  his  brain,  and  must  be  kept  in  compara- 
tive safety.  I,  with  my  '^shining  sword  flashing  in 
the  sunlight."  Ah!  There  sat  in  the  hall  that  day 
men  who  had  given  that  boy  their  last  hardtack,  who 
had  carried  him  on  their  backs  through  deep  rivers. 
But  some  were  not  there;  they  had  gone  down  to 
death  for  their  country.  The  speaker  mentioned 
them,  but  they  were  but  little  noticed,  and  yet  they 
had  gone  down  to  death  for  their  country,  gone  down 
for  a  cause  they  believed  was  right  and  still  believe 
was  right,  though  I  grant  to  the  other  side  the  same 
that  I  ask  for  myself.  Yet  these  men  who  had 
actually  died  for  their  country  were  little  noticed, 
and  the  hero  of  the  hour  was  this  bo}^  Why  was  he 
the  hero?  Simply  because  that  man  fell  into  that 
same  foolishness.  This  boy  was  an  officer,  and  those 
were  only  private  S9ldiers.  I  learned  a  lesson  that 
I  will  never  forget. ;  Greatness  consists  not  in  holding 
some  office;  greatness  really  consists  in  doing  some 
great  deed  with  little  means,  in  the  accomplishment 
of  vast  purposes  from  the  private  ranks  of  life;  that 
is  true  greatness.  He  who  can  give  to  this  people 
better  streets,  better  homes,  better  schools,  better 
churches,  more  religion,  more  of  happiness,  more 
of  God,  he  that  can  be  a  blessing  to  the  community 
in  which  he  lives  tonight  will  be  great  anywhere, 
but  he  who  cannot  be  a  blessing  where  he  now  fives 


438  APPENDIX 

will  never  be  great  anywhere  on  the  face  of  God^s 
earth.  '^We  hve  in  deeds,  not  years;  in  feeUng,  not 
in  figures  on  a  dial;  in  thoughts,  not  breaths;  we 
should  count  time  by  heart  throbs,  in  the  cause  of 
right."  Bailey  says:  ^'He  most  lives  who  thinks 
most." 

If  you  forget  everything  I  have  said  to  you,  do  not 
forget  this,  because  it  contains  more  in  two  lines  than 
all  I  have  said.  Bailey  says:  ^'He  most  Hves  who 
thinks  most,  who  feels  the  noblest,  and  who  acts 
the  best.'' 


DUE  DATE 


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